Snow one to blame

I feel sorry for the chap on GMTV this morning, called in to sit on the sofa and explain whose fault it is that the country has shut-down and he manages to get about three sentences out before they run out of time. He tried to shift it onto the fact that this is more snow then we've seen in two decades, but let's be blunt about this - everytime it snows the country shuts-down end of story.

Now it's all very well clearing the main roads, but you have to be able to get to them for that to be of any use. You could use public transport... hah hah hah, or you could cycle though I haven't seen many on bikes over the last two days presumably because the cleared roads pushes everything up to the kerb.

Interestingly the town itself is clear and looks like it's just left over snow with both roads and pavements clear. That is clear of snow, clear of ice is a whole other matter. That's the trouble when the temperature rises - snow starts to melt, but doesn't drain away then you hit night-time and it freezes making things even worse. If it wasn't for the fact that I see so much surface water sitting on our roads I would suggest big hot air lorries trundling along melting the snow away, but as it is we'd turn our roads into ice-rinks doing that.

Another problem is other drivers (of course that's other drivers and not myself) on the road. Despite the conditions I was still seeing bonnet to boot driving and people merrily driving along at the maximum speed possible; what is wrong with you people? Sure crawling along a cleared main road at 5mph is an extreme, but doing 20-25mph I had cars trying to crawl up my exhaust pipe; on the 50 I was doing 40mph and keeping a healthy gap between myself and the three bunched vehicles in front and still had cars catching me up and sitting behind me.

For god's sake people the speed limit is the maximum speed that is safe when it's a nice pleasant day with a dry road and perfect visibility - that ain't now so don't think that's what you can or should be doing.

Anyway the sun is out so I'll see what melts ready to freeze this evening.

[Additional - Best quote ever via the BBC "parents are being advised to keep their children at home to avoid weather conditions "likely to severely hamper safe travel for pupils and teachers"." Yeah but if you're just working feel free to travel. Sheesh out of curiosity how many part-time/shift workers won't be able to work today because they have to stay at home and look after the kids? How many full-time workers will decide to stay off work to play with their at-home children? How come everyone else is supposed to struggle into work to keep this country running, but teachers get a pass?]