Tuesday 28 December 2010

Snow trouble...

I am continually amazed at the lack of vision in the UK.  A blind acceptance of a condition and an unwavering hope that it will go away.  Over the last few weeks we have seen the country grind to a shuddering halt because of 3cm of snow.

Call me old fashioned but...come on!!!  Other countries around Europe see it as a mild irritation but in the UK...it's almost the end of the world.  I do understand the issues that parts of the UK had, especially Scotland who suffered more than most but I have been to Scotland many times and the weather was always bad and snow is part and parcel of the winter and yet they came unstuck and the authorities were surprised by its arrival! 
  • People were trapped on the motorways in cars up and down the UK.
  • Shops were running out of bread and milk because some stupid people were panic buying as if we were at war.
  • Airports were closed.
  • Train services were cancelled.
  • The streets were like ice rinks and the pavements were lethal.
  • We had tons of salt and, most likely, still have because even in this day and age we did not get the salt down on the roads because we were caught napping...
Wonderful.

So, what do we do?  Dig ourselves out of it?  Err...No. We waited for it to go away.
Personally I would have galvanised the army into action, commandeered as many snow ploughs and bulldozers as I could get and cleared the streets, motorways and airport runways and got the country back on track.  Once the streets and pavements were clear I would have organised the salt to go down.
No.  We waited until it melted and suffered the knock on effects of people having to queue for days at airports,

Now I see that New York has suffered a thirty inch snow fall and temperatures have dropped to record levels.  What did they do?  The cleared it with snow ploughs and bulldozers and even got Kennedy airport open after one day...

Will we NEVER learn?