Columnist sparks anger by saying blackouts will be ‘good' for Gen Z and Millennials

A columnist has sparked outrage online after claiming a blackout could be the answer to the youth's "sense of entitlement".

"A power cut or two might be just the ticket to shake some of today’s youngsters out of their sublime sense of entitlement," Robert Taylor of The Telegraph penned on Wednesday (October 13) – sending Twitter into a furious spiral.

It comes as the National Grid announced that some consumers could be without power for "pre-defined periods" in an "unlikely event" of a gas shortage.

A senior industry source told the Guardian: "We’re heading into winter in an unprecedented situation. Even during the cold war, the Soviet Union kept the gas flowing so it’s very unpredictable."

While Taylor acknowledged blackouts as an "appalling prospect", he recounted an elderly relative's remarks from the 1970s. She often said, "we need another war" to sort the younger generation out.

Taylor expressed how he partially sided with the remark while disclaiming he meant in terms of a blackout, not a war.

He wrote: "Children like me found it fun to huddle around a family candle eating sandwiches when the cooker didn’t work, and to edge gingerly through the house in complete blackness when the lights went. It was like an instant game of Murder, which, in those days, we were allowed to play without our parents fearing we’d end up in Broadmoor."

Taylor justified his take by adding: "We looked out for each other. Because we had to," before asking: "Could that same sense of community togetherness be kindled today? Boy, do we need it."

The article was shared across Twitter, with author James Felton calling it "a deranged paper" that cheered on blackouts "because they'll happen under the Tories and they'll also be sh*t for the young."

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The viral tweet racked up hundreds of RTs and responses, with one humouring: "Coming next, 'nuclear apocalypse would be bad but at least it might get young people to look up from their phones.'"

Another added: "Entitlement to what? Having lights on and being able to walk around your house at night without bumping into shit in the darkness? Seems a reasonable thing to feel entitled to."

Meanwhile, a third joked: "It's true, I tell my kids to read in the dark so they don't feel too entitled."

Taylor concluded that powercuts may be "uncomfortable and inconvenient" and possibly "dangerous and terrible", but he'd be "ready to see one or two well-hidden benefits of otherwise horrible enforced cold and darkness."

"Let’s trust it won’t come to that," he added.

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