There's a faint glimmer of light; no it's just a pub that hasn't shut yet

Britain's Power Blank and the final day of The Western Meeting

Every time I metaphorically pick up a mouse and a keyboard, I am all too aware that the chances are, that what I am about to produce could be hugely wrong. It could be wrong in ten minutes time, in a week, at the close of racing, when the news comes on at ten. The lack of certainty can cause my ears to bleed and my mouth to hang agape, and for me to clutch my head. There have been times, when I wept because not only had Dobbin run like a dog, but it turned out he was a dead dog. I rarely whoop with the joys of spring because I don’t have gigantic tracts of fields full of ripening Consistency.

Donny made my nose bleed, Ayr has already stapped me vitals with the Jim Goldie stiletto and the Karl Burke switch-blade. It is the calamitous price I pay for my arrogance in thinking that I can occasionally be right. But of this, I am certain; the billions of US dollars that are coming for AI development in the UK will turn out to be a trompe-l'œil.

The UK is betting big on becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence, with major investments from US tech giants painting a picture of a prosperous, AI-powered future. However, this ambition rests on a foundation of significant, interconnected risks that threaten to create a perfect storm of financial instability, power crises, and infrastructure failure by 2030.

The core of this challenge lies in the sheer scale of the required infrastructure. Developing and training cutting-edge AI models demands more than just computers; it requires an ecosystem of hyperscale data centres, powerful processors, and massive, reliable power supplies. Projects like the proposed £30 billion AI Growth Zone in the North East, with its 1.1 Gigawatt energy capacity, and a new AI supercomputer in Essex demanding up to 90 Megawatts, are not just additions to the UK’s infrastructure—they are monumental undertakings that will place an unprecedented strain on the national grid.

This immense demand for power is the most immediate and tangible risk. Electricity demand is expected to double by 2050 as the country transitions to electric cars and heat pumps, and as data centre consumption from AI quadruples in the next decade. The current grid has