Saturday - December 04, 2010

Double Entendre?

Snow, ice, wind, and record breaking cold continue to hammer the UK. In the land of “we don’t really have winter, just a bit of inconvenience” it has been snowing steadily for days. Some areas have received well over a foot of the white stuff, with nearly double that falling in the higher elevations. People are freezing to death, the roads are closed, the railways are a mess, schools are shut. Are people in panic mode? Are they finally losing that famous stiff upper lip and their famous ability for muddling through?  Sometimes a news headline is more telling than intended ...

PEIPER’S BDROOM

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, was accused of “breathtaking complacency” after he told MPs that only 107,000 tons of the recommended 250,000-ton “strategic stockpile” of salt had been delivered. The rest was due to arrive over the next six weeks.

The stockpile was intended to provide back-up supplies when councils and the Highways Agency run out. It also emerged that councils were taking stringent measures to preserve existing supplies. One council has told staff to spread grit on only “one side of the pavement” in an attempt to conserve their stocks.  The alleged failure of councils to spread enough grit has been blamed by many motoring organisations for the paralysis of the road network.

Travellers by air and rail also continued to suffer. Gatwick, Southampton, Durham Tees Valley and London City airports were all closed for at least part of yesterday. Flights were cancelled at Heathrow, Luton and Newcastle. Train services operated by Eurostar, Southeastern, First Hull Trains, ScotRail, CrossCountry and East Midlands were also disrupted by the heavy snow.

About 7,000 schools were closed, while about two in five people failed to turn up for work, dealing a huge blow to the economy in the run-up to Christmas.

Mr Hammond has already ordered an inquiry into the failures that have left much of Britain at a standstill. In the Commons yesterday, Maria Eagle, the shadow transport secretary, criticised the Government’s response, telling Mr Hammond to “get a grip”.

“You are not filling the House with any kind of confidence that you are dealing with your responsibilities adequately,” she said. “Do you believe that a grit audit is an adequate response from the Government to the current suffering of motorists forced to sleep freezing in their cars, train passengers dropped off at stations with no way of being rescued and half the population struggling to get to work?”

Huh. Road salt shortages. Funny, when I first saw the headline I thought it was about government policy and politics. You know, one of those double intender thingies.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/04/2010 at 12:46 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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