Southern Britain grinds to a halt
AS USUAL, a bit of snow has caused much of Britain to grind to a halt.
There are no buses running in London. The capital's airports have closed their runways. Heathrow was operating a single runway until a plane skidded off it onto the grass verge. Now taxi drivers are demanding an arm and a leg to ferry passengers home again. One wanted £150 to run the missus home to Luton after a hitch-free journey around the M25 early this morning despite BBC reports that the motorway was gridlocked.
Thousands of schools are shut, but that usually happens if there's a millimetre of snow about, let alone the eight inches reported in some places - we use both measurement systems here, dontcha know.
Workers not yet laid off by firms using the so-called credit crunch as an excuse to trim the fat are enjoying the day off to go sledging with the nippers. It's actually quite pleasant out when the Siberian wind drops off.
More snow is on its way. Luckily the forward-thinking INQ shuns the traditional commuter haul to run a distributed model in which our reporters are based whereever they happen to find themselves. Abnormal service is unaffected... µ
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Typical british reaction to the unknown, coupled with media overreaction, as they try to one-up each other with ever more hysterical headlines.
Yes, there's some snow around - no, it's not a problem. Since we only get snow rarely, the people around here are using it as an excuse to not go to work. If they thought they wouldn't get paid (and those who don't get paid when they don't turn up are travelling) they'd make the effort.
It's not helped by the clueless reporting we see on TV and radio, where a new arrival from a cold country could be forgiven for thinking there was a military coup in place - with everyone being told to stay at home, rather than the couple of inches of precipitation we have.
I think you'll find this is a typically "southern" phenomenon, given the typical media slant to southern events.
No mention of the fact those of us closer to the arctic circle face far, far worse conditions on a more regular basis and still manage just fine. And we probably has less 4x4's per capita too.
Makes you laugh really.
I've never even seen snow (except on TV and pics). I wish we had it here.
We Scottish people have been quietly sniggering to ourself all weekend as we watched all the "terrible" weather warnings on the telly over the weekend from the English.
The English media really do enjoy getting their knickers in a twist over a bit of snow.
I remember 10 years ago we used to get up to 4 feet snow drifts in the central belt. Today it was a massive 2" if that.
You just get on with it!
:-)
As seen on the INQ:
Snow Leopard arriving early
GPU speed boost on the cards
Thursday, 18 December 2008, 13:52 PM
What the hell is it with the English and weather? Anything outside of the norm and the whole country goes on a whinge-fest. Everybody here laughs (hardy antipodeans that we are) when we hear news of a British "heat-wave" of three consecutive days of 95-100oF and we see vision of everyone flopping around like they were on the surface of bloody Venus! We just had seven consecutive days of 113oF, and we still went to bloody work. Everybody else on the planet overcomes climate and just gets on with it. What does it say about southern England that you get a bit of snow and your entire society grinds to a halt?
Was supposed to have a new desk delivered today. Was called by the delivery company and told that the Police stopped their vans, so no deliveries. Considering there were no major issues on the roads, I find the excuse highly unlikely.
Habitat, the store where I bought the desk, just pointed out they have 3 months after the agreed date of deliver to actually deliver the desk. Checking the small print on the receipt, I can see they are right. However, I will not be buying from then again or any other retailer who can take 3 months to deliver according to their small print. It cost 75 euros to get delivered too!
I love French customer service.
Buncha damn sissies.... I get more snow than that on a clear day (Northern NY). Sheesh, what some people won't whine about to get out of a day's work.
We have another (about our sixth or so) storm coming in tomorrow, not much, just another 12"-15". Guess I'll have to wake up 5 minutes early and use the snowblower on the driveway.
How do your distributed reporters cope when snow stops deliveries to the pubs "where they happen to be"?
It reminds me of a youthful (as if there could be any other) Lord Bath! Yes. And oh, she should really put some delightful psychedelic clothing on him and send him on safari. Perhaps a Nehru jacket would be a nice touch. Why would anyone rain on this parade? (Wouldn't you have thought Rich Wargo would have somebody to blow snow for him?) "And what I want to know, man,
Why, oh why, Does she treat me like a snowman!" Who don't like snowman? Paul, I won't be in the office, tomorrow. I'm snowed in, cold sick, white out, snow blind. Truly abominable! You shall just have to do without me. Good luck getting a roof top solar furnace kicking. I realise that some tourists may be disappointed to see The INQ's grandiose weighty 19th-century décor tours closed a day for snow, but the rain will come out tomorrow. You can bet your bottom dollar that the rain will shine sometime. And then we all know what happens then... back to the Monkey Jungle.