It's time to start stocking up on candles

So you have been warned. Stock up now on candles, batteries and oil lamps, and look out that trusty old Primus stove.

Michael Fallon was responding to a warning from power watchdog Ofgem that we could be plunged into darkness in just two years.

According to Ofgem, the UK's spare electricity supply is getting lower than George Osborne's credibility.

Higher demand and a focus on green energy could generate a crisis unless urgent action is taken.

"I can assure you the lights are not going to go out," was Mr Fallon's less than reassuring response.

He should have left it at that, but instead he kept digging.

"The latest assessment has shown that the position is slightly worse than the previous assessment and Ofgem has got to make sure, with all the tools at its disposal, bringing some mothball plants back in action, it has got to make sure the lights stay on and they will."

Sound convincing to you? No, me neither.

It didn't convince his boss, either. LibDems' Energy Secretary Ed Davey was forced to admit: "Without taking action there would be risks to the security of supply."

The public reaction has been predictable: it is scaremongering to soften us up for yet more price increases.

Either that or someone hopes to put the frighteners on eco warriors who would rather we lived in the dark than embraced such horrors as fracking for shale gas.

The UK Government is already culpable for allowing foreign-owned energy companies to get rich on the backs of their consumers, driving 4.5million Britons – including 900,000 Scottish homes – into fuel poverty.

Of our big six, E.On and NPower are German-owned, EDF is French, and ScottishPower profits are spent in Spain. Only British/Scottish Gas and Perth-based SSE are UK-owned.

When the Tories privatised our electricity industry in the 1990s, they told us competition would drive down prices. It did the opposite.

We were also assured these companies would invest for the future. So why does it need taxpayers' billions to renew their power stations?

And who meets the bills to pay for such investment? You've guessed it, the same mugs paying for the current huge green subsidies.

Since the 1960s, the UK Treasury has trousered almost £300billion in North Sea oil tax.

Successive governments squandered that legacy with a shambolic national energy policy, despite knowing our power stations would need replaced.

At least a blackout threat has cheered the SNP. It is entitled to crow as it ridicules claims England would not buy our electricity after a referendum Yes vote.

Scotland currently exports 26% of electricity generated and Alex Salmond's goal is to meet 100% of our electricity from renewables by 2020.

But Ofgem's warning about green energy tunnel-vision is aimed at him, too.

If the lights do go out in 2015, how does he propose filling the five-year gap until 2020?

Believe me, if Scotland is hit with energy shortages, we should not be selling our electricity. We will need it all.

We have mothballed power stations, and do not believe bean counters that it was for eco concerns.

They were no longer cost-efficient, at least not for company profits, whereas cutting supply increased demand and prices.

In the UK, 31% of electricity currently comes from coal-burning plants, but EU air quality legislation will close a third of them in 2015 (just in time for the blackouts!).

That sounds like another good reason to get out of Europe.

Germany is currently building 10 new coal plants and we should not decommission ours until replacements are up and running.

The World Resources Institute says 1200 coal plants are being built in 59 countries, three-quarters in China and India.

So closing ours is eco futility, like attempting to clear snow during a blizzard.

Even if fracking was our fuel salvation, like nuclear it would take years to get anything meaningful on stream.

And if our dodgy economy ever picks up, that could cause even more problems with a new demand for power.

PEOPLE Make Glasgow was revealed only four days ago as our city's new slogan and already it is a hit with stand-up comedians. Add your own tag line: People Make Glasgow a midden, the UK capital for heart disease, low life expectancy, teenage pregnancy, murder, etc, etc.

It is all true, but you don't visit Madrid or Mexico City to view the locals — not unless they are in traditional dress and selling fake watches or there is the chance of seeing one being gored by a bull.

Glasgow boasts world-class music and arts, magnificent museums, Victorian splendour, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, friendly people, and so much more. A £500,000 worldwide marketing campaign will help inform a TV audience of 1.5billion when we host the Commonwealth Games next year.

Its people may indeed make Glasgow, but let this great city speak for itself.