I 'm not sure if this should go under v public sector workers,but to be honest there reporting is so OTT that i think it deserves it's own thread,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... inter.html

The pictures in this story particually annoyed me,a gritted road with traffic moving.I see the front page runs with the same "broken Britain" implications,

We have had over a foot and a half of snow,major roads are open,the schools are doing their best.One could run a story,as the local news did,on peoples community spirit and resiliance.But that would not fit with the Fails agenda.

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Soon, if we are not prudent, millions of people will be watching each other starve to death through expensive television sets. Nye Bevan

It's not JUST the Uk either. Here in Norway of all places, when we had a, albeit unexpected, heavy snowfall in October, it was absolute chaos on the roads as well as no-one had thought to change to snow tyres in October. Was a lot better with the second snow at the beginning of November though.

Now its just icy icy cold -14, but at least no snow! It's forecast at the weekend though, and I am very much not looking forward to it.

To be fair to the UK though, historically there is never much snow there, so councils don't spend money on being over prepared for something that rarely happens, so when it does happen, it's chaos.

Grumble time! When they say "essential travel only" people really need to listen. Instead of every bugger going to work anyways then getting annoyed because every other fool thinks the same thing.

I don't even fully understand what the Mail's agenda is here, other than to take a negative angle on just about everything, validating their average reader's opinion that everything was better in the old days - chirpy snowplough drivers tipping their cap to the local kids as they merrily cleared the road to the local school, or something.

A lot of Mail readers' seem unable to accept that no matter how much effort the Highways Agency and local councils' make, the roads cannot flow as they do on a clear summer day. No matter how much gritting and ploughing has been done, you need to slow down and allow for a longer journey - not acceptable in Mailworld. They want the roads ploughed and gritted for them, but hate The Nanny State with a passion. Hmmm.

Part of the problem seems to be that drivers over-compensate for snow and drive extremely slow

Over here its the law to get winter tyres fitted by December, maybe this is something the UK needs to implement. At least if these bad winters are going to become more common.

Guess it would be 'elf'n'safety gon mad' though

Snowplows are very useful, except when they wake you up at 4:30 as they make their noisy way down the cobbled highstreet

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'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

What gets me are the TV sadface interviews with people who disregarded the warnings not to travel and ended up stranded. "They didn't tell us anything" they sadfacedly complain.

Well what were they going to tell you? That the situation was fluid, that there was no real information they could give? That they simply didn't have a clear picture? And how would they tell you? Phone everyone individually? Put the information on a website that you couldn't access because you are in your sodding car?

It's the petulant self-centredness of it that gets me.

It's only the last three years in 11 that we've had significant snow at all in the south. Before that winters were mild.
A point often made is that in the UK the weather is much less predictable than in other places (like central Europe) so speculative investment in snow ploughs, heated roadways and snow tyres/chains is extremely hard to justify, taken over even the medium term.

And faced with a foot of snow you aren't going to get very far with snow tyres. You need a tractor.

Very true.

The only reason I mentioned winter tyres is that someone on here commented on the Littlejohn thread that increasingly severe winters are a direct result of climate change, which isn't showing any signs of slowing down...

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'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

It was a bit embarrassing yesterday having to explain to colleagues visiting from New York that we basically can't cope with snow and seem surprised by it every year. But then they get it like this every year and, like northern European countries, have measures in place to tackle it.

Mind you Tooting high street still isn't gritted, this is what you get for living in the poorest part of the borough with the cheapest council tax

Anyway, I agree the Mail (and other papers) just uses it as yet another excuse to whine and attack local authorities who in most cases are doing their best with what they have. I'm not including Wandsworth council in this btw.

It's probably because our infrastructure has been starved of investment for decades.

I imagine then that the Mail will campaign for new cash for our public services.

In the United States, they have weather warning systems on TV and the radio, plus the emergency broadcast system, which constantly interrupts programs with brief messages with up to the minute information. Here, we have weather warnings that are 'issued' by appearing on the weather if you happen to catch it. I can see why people would like something a bit more informative and up to date, but then again in extreme situations like now they should be able to look out their window and realise "I'm not likely to get to work because there's a foot of snow on the ground". The Mail would, no doubt, complain about Dad's Army being interrupted by a loud emergency tone and scrolling text describing the situation.

No - what they're complaining about is that when they've gone out (when told not to) and got stuck on a motorway in a blizzard, the emergency services don't come and tell them 'what's going on'. Or when trains get stuck in snow the first priority of the railway staff is to tell them 'what's going on'. Or ditto when airports are closed, etc etc.

What's going on is it's snowing, ya fuckwits, and it's causing disruption! Stay home like you were told to!

Mind you, South West trains (who weren't advising people to stay at home) were less than helpful this morning. We had a barrage of automated announcements to the effect that they were sorry because numerous specified trains were delayed due to snow (occasionally varied by slippery rails), when really all that anyone needed to know was when the next train was going to turn up and where it was going to.

Well, there were plenty of warnings from the police, weather agencies, BBC, government etc.

Perhaps they don't know when the next train will turn up. So can't let you know.

Like everything else, you could design a system that would give you real-time information on where all trains are at all times - are you prepared to pay for it, for the 10 days a year when you'd like (not need) it?