Although brown-outs may seem innocuous at first, they are in fact potentially extremely damaging to electronic equipment such as computers, set-top boxes, wireless routers and even many digital clocks found on household appliances such as ovens. What makes things more worrying is that the brown-outs, if they do happen, will be deliberately brought about by the National Grid.

But why would it do something so damaging? And what can we as consumers do to protect ourselves from the consequences? The answer to the first question lies in the simple fact that Britain’s power supplies are almost completely over-stretched. So much so that this week the Energy Secretary Ed Davey — who has been forced to deny that blackouts are looming — will unveil a package of contingency measures to reduce pressures on the National Grid this winter. They include paying hotels to turn down refrigerators, and paying companies to change shifts for staff to make the most efficient use of energy.

This extraordinary situation — Britain once had the most reliable electricity supply in the world — is thanks to a medley of mishaps across Britain’s power stations. The most recent was certainly dramatic. Last weekend, there was a fire at the Didcot B gas-powered power station near Oxford. By itself, the fire at Didcot would not have severely dented the nation’s power supply, but there are already four other power stations out of action because of various fires and faults. Together, the five stations that are closed would normally generate a massive 4.3 gigawatts of power, or 7 per cent of the UK’s total electricity capacity.

According to some experts, that means the National Grid may well find it hard to cope, as it now has so little capacity in reserve. In summer, there is usually enough energy in reserve to cope with any problems, but in the winter, services are stretched to capacity.

The central issue is that Mr Draghi and the ECB see Europe as being on the cusp of a triple-dip recession. Europe is also at risk of getting stuck in a cycle of very low inflation and stagnant growth. Inasmuch as it has already cut short-term interest rates to zero (below zero, even), the bank is considering doing an American-style program of quantitative easing, or buying vast sums of bonds with newly created euros, to try to avert this fate. It is also encouraging Germany and other European nations to loosen the purse strings a bit and pursue fiscal policy that is more supportive of growth.

In Germany, by contrast, both elected leaders in Berlin and central bankers at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt view the worry over deflation as overwrought, the need for fiscal probity as critical, and any effort to print money to buy government bonds as the pathway to hyperinflationary perdition.

It’s worth adding that most everybody on this side of the Atlantic, the International Monetary Fund and the United States government, for example, is on Team Draghi in this dispute. Indeed, the widespread view among economists in the United States and Britain is that the risks facing Europe are grave and that the need for easing both monetary and fiscal policy is urgent. What the latest reporting shows, though, is just how deep the anger over ECB policies runs in Germany and how tricky this task will be for Mr Draghi.

In visiting the parliament, the pope will be accepting an invitation made by Schultz during a visit to the Vatican in October 2013.

"The decision to come to Strasbourg before visiting any individual EU member state as such gives a strong signal that the pope supports and encourages the pursuit of European integration and unity," said a statement by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, president of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community.

"We hope that the [Pope] will encourage European parliamentarians in their work and that he will indicate how the foundational values of the Union - inspired to a large degree by the Christian faith - may shape the Europe of tomorrow."

When Islamic State (IS) declared itself a caliphate in June this year, and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi claimed the title of caliph, it seemed confirmation of the group's reputation for megalomania and atavistic fantasy. Al-Baghdadi insisted that pledging allegiance to this caliphate was a religious obligation on all Muslims - an appeal which was immediately greeted by a chorus of condemnation across the Middle East.

But is it dangerous to underestimate the appeal of IS? Al-Baghdadi's brutal regime does not, of course, remotely conform to the classical Muslim understanding of what a caliphate should be, but it does evoke an aspiration with a powerful and increasingly urgent resonance in the wider Muslim world.

The last caliphate - that of the Ottomans - was officially abolished 90 years ago this spring. Yet in a 2006 Gallup survey of Muslims living in Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan, two-thirds of respondents said they supported the goal of "unifying all Islamic countries" into a new caliphate.

The success of IS does, in a grim way, reflect what a powerful and urgent aspiration the Caliphate has become. The IS project is certainly megalomaniac and atavistic, but it is building on an idea that is much more than a fantasy.

Yet he will have enormous power over all our lives for the next few years. Welcome to the undemocratic EU, made up of unelected Commissioners and an unaccountable bureaucracy costing £8 billion a year just to administrate! However, whilst the name and the face at the top has changed, the policies and the attitudes have remained the same.

This week Barosso on his farewell tour told us that our attempts to renegotiate a more flexible relationship with the EU “will never be accepted”, and issued dire warnings that we would not “even retain marginal relevance” if we left the Union. Then Juncker made clear on his first day in office that he would not consider “any changes” to the complete freedom of movement within the EU as asked for by our government.

Barroso and Juncker are typical of the people running the EU. They think that only they understand economics. In fact the UK could manage very well outside the EU. Currently we are being held back by the obsession with keeping the artificial Eurozone in place.

The EU isn’t working - as 12 percent of the continent’s population know only too well (including that lost generation under 30 born near the Mediterranean). Meanwhile, former Communist-turned-totalitarian-Europhile Jose Manuel Barroso has been enjoying a typically bombastic pre-retirement tour demonstrating a majestic lack of understanding for the stagnancy which has resulted from his decade-long failure as EU president.

Thus we reach an abyss for Europe. Germany (as predicted) is a post-peak economic powerhouse. Ukraine has led the EU to self-defeating sanctions which have further trimmed the economy just as growth has proven a mirage.

The fine art of attending endless lavish intergovernmental dinners became a curious ritual in recent years. Some nations, such as Ireland, were sacrificed to save banks in Germany and France. As a financial professional (but not a banker), it has been singularly disgusting post-Lehmann collapse to watch an ongoing act of communist folly - socializing debt to protect banker hubris. For this reason alone, the EU abandoned fiscal credibility.

Every day government avoids acting to genuinely reboot the economy is not merely another day squandered for the lost generation, it marks one more sleep until we hit code red. The 28-member supranational state of ‘Kickcanistan’ cannot survive what is, at best, a status quo of stasis. Europe may be about to hit the panic button - the only result will be: panic.

Profit warnings are issued by companies quoted on a stock market to alert investors that profits will be lower than in the previous year. EY capital transformation leader for Europe, Middle East, India and Africa, Keith McGregor, said: "Profit warnings have continued apace from the third into the fourth quarter."

"This implies that at best companies and markets are misreading the post-crisis economy and are struggling to adapt to rapid structural changes, and at worst have once again over-estimated the pace and nature of this recovery."

Mr Juncker followed this up by pledging to embark upon another great spending splurge. He plans to unveil a 300-billion-euro investment package before Christmas to boost jobs and growth, amid global fears of a return of the eurozone debt crisis. Meanwhile, MEPs rejected the budget cuts imposed by the Council of Ministers, at Mr Cameron’s behest, earlier this year. National leaders had accepted the argument that if they were having to bite the austerity bullet, then the EU should too – but MEPs have not only voted to reverse their suggested cuts of £1.7 billion but to add an extra £3.7 billion on top.

There will now need to be further talks between the two bodies, before a final budget is set next month. The chances are that it will end up higher than expected – and that British taxpayers will have to find up to £680 million extra at a time when their own living standards are being squeezed. Even the wider seven-year budget deal negotiated by Mr Cameron is now in jeopardy.

The process is a scandal, and one that would not be allowed in our own country. Auditors have declined to sign off EU spending for years, so why is there no accountability for this?