I am conscious that my post below, coupled with photos of yesterday evening's dusting may provoke people in other places to mock. I have been to Geneva, ten years ago last week, and of course the snow was heavy, and on the whole, Geneva coped, although not Geneva airport.
I was rather reassured fourteen months ago in New York to be watching the local news and finding a level of panic that I thought existed only in London.
Places with regular high snowfall are able to cope with it because they have the infrastructure and planning. London fails to cope because although the snowfall is not severe in absolute terms, it is in relative terms. I see little point in hard-pressed councils maintaining a large fleet of snow-ploughs that will be needed one day in five years. I don't think it's a good use of taxpayers' money. For many people, a bonus day off school or work is not the end of the world. I accept that there are essential services that must continue to function come what may: the Emergency Services and hospitals, the utilities, arguably media, and a few others. I don't work Mondays anyway, but I think that my specific job is really inessential on a day-to-day basis. And I think most jobs are similar. Even with the Emergency Services, good contingency planning isn't necessarily about taking every step possible to ensure business-as-usual, but about identifying what must go on. Perhaps some police officers or hospital staff can't get in; well, they cancel/postpone the non-urgent, non-necessary and deploy the available staff to cover the priorities.
And anyway, it is bad. I know that for a fact. I have a neighbour. We have been saying hello for several months. He's a resourceful outdoors sort of chap. The sort who wears a lamp on his head for putting out the rubbish; who wears walking shoes for chatting with the neighbours. He has a North American accent. It certainly isn't Southern States. If pushed, I would have said Canada. So I thought 'I'll ask him..."
Shame he's a bloke and his wife is English.
Brad the Alaskan says "It's bad. "
