snow

london has had a snow event. the most snow it has had in 18 years (even though that statistic was just for central london as the newsday progressed it became the statistic for the whole country).
on monday central london was covered in snow. it was a special day. there is a rare beauty in seeing the city covered in snow. walking into the west end was an adventure, a skid here, a bit of a slide there. one step forward one slip back. the air bracing and chill, sounds deadened, happy voices raised.
a few things were quickly noticeable as i walked. there were no buses to be seen on the roads, it was the first time that the buses had been suspended across the city (although many routes were working by the end of the day). a large number of shops and offices were closed, across the country it was reported that 6 million people didn’t make it into work that day. there were few people in the streets, and even fewer cars. a large number of people who were out were playing in the snow, tossing snowballs making snowmen, just having fun.
it was a beautiful day.

well it was for me.

crikey the number of moaners that crawled out of the woodwork was immense.
parents complaining that their children’s schools were closed, moaning about there being too much concern of health and safety (of course they would have been the first to whine if their child had gotten hurt). parents whinging that they had to take a day off work to look after their children. shucks, they are your kids it means that sometimes you just have to look after them.
drivers complaining that the roads have not been gritted to the standards that they need. oh how they ranted and raved. where are the snowploughs, where are the industrial gritters, why are the local authorities not prepared for such extreme weather. of course none of the drivers had snow tyres to fit to their cars, because well they weren’t prepared for such extreme weather.
boris having a pop at skivers.
travellers wondering where their train was. one commentator on the radio claimed that all terrorists needed to do was put snow on the lines and they had crippled the country. hyperbole? maybe a tad.

the number of people who phoned into radio shows to point out that when they were on holiday in finland the people there just got on with life when there was a lot of snow, a royal marine said that when he went training every year to northern norway they had no trouble with dealing with the snow.
of course the fact these countries get snow on a regular basis seemed to pass these moaning minnies by. as did the fact that for many parts of the country that was very unusual weather.
what was not unusual were the number of people who wondered where all the special equipment was to deal with the snow and ice, naturally these people were not interested in paying any extra taxes to pay for said equipment, they just wanted it, no doubt they would be among the first to claim that such items were a waste of money in the snowless years.

one thing is sure you can’t do is please all of the people all of the time.

i was at a talk a while back where the veracity of the ‘blitz spirit’ was called into question. if the aftermath of the snowfall is anything to go by if we ever had the ‘blitz spirit’ we have surely lost it, struck down by a hastily thrown snowball.