The Mail versus Snow

storygirl · **Posted:** Tue Dec 21, 2010 11:25 pm

AOB wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338960/Millions-online-presents-stranded-snow-ice-cause-backlog.html

Millions of online presents stranded as snow and ice cause huge backlog... and the weather's getting WORSE

Capitals again at the end of the sentence? Anyway, this really is the Mail Versus Snow because the weather is consciously and deliberately preventing presents from getting delivered. Front page news this!!!

Quote:

Families are facing a Christmas of disappointment, with millions of gifts bought via the internet not arriving in time, warn experts.

They forgot "middle-class" before it.

But Santas sleigh runs better in the snow! :mrgreen:

Malcolm Armsteen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:32 am

'Thunderbirds'. Brilliant!

JuanTwoThree · **Posted:** Wed Dec 22, 2010 3:06 pm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31074376@N06/3833906057

Son Of Hand · **Posted:** Wed Dec 22, 2010 3:47 pm

Have to agree there. They have to use a Schrader pipe and a sort of adapter coupling which they colloquially call a 'mushroom', but failed EMU's can indeed be pulled by diesel locomotives. Our local line, Great Eastern, actually keeps a loco in a siding at Shenfield, complete with driver, during peak periods in case it needs to drag a failed unit off the main line.

Malcolm Armsteen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 22, 2010 4:37 pm

I know they can do it in Chuggington, but Virgin Rail doesn't seem to be as well organised...

Begs the question of why a few strategically placed locos weren't on readiness, given the weather. I can see how frozen points or seasick signals could slow them down, but not a failure of the knitting.

InkyGB · **Joined:** Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:47 pm **Posts:** 264

horacegoesskiing wrote:

Thousands of passengers stranded as power failure closes East Coast Main Line 'indefinitely'

The amount of shite that's been submitted, even with just 68 comments so far, is staggering. Look at it all! It's all the Government's fault/ get steam engines to replace those namby pamby modern electric ones/ "third world country"/ greedy Labour councils and their highest taxes in the world. This is my favourite:

Quote:

I don't believe tha it has been said here, but the problem is not the train operators on the KX - Petreborough problems. It is National Rail, wholly owned by us following the Railtrack debacle. Further problem is National Rail either will not, or cannot plan ahead and introduce reliable technology. Why? Because its engineers are usually ignored by its contracting and procurement departments, and related politicians, very similar to the Ministry of Defence, actually. All politicised civil service based.

Then we have East Coast itself. Handed back to the government becasue civil servants would not negotiate with the previous private franchis holder. Now run by civil servants.

To say that all of this was a disaster in waiting would be an understatement. But it was a disaster created, honed and delivered in Whitehall by 13 years of Labour misdirection of funds.

- Tom, Bedfordshire, 21/12/2010 17:30

That's right... it's not the bad weather... it's the civil servants whodunnit!

And of course nothing to do with the fragmented mess that privatisation created or anything, or the pretty crap way Network Rail has been run since the Railtrack had to be taken back under government control. Let's also not forget that Railtrack was taken away from the private sector because they prioritized saving money over safety and people died as a result.

British Rail was crap as far as I can remember too, but wasn't that due to decades of underfunding and major mistakes like Dr Beeching's cull in the 60s?

InkyGB · **Joined:** Sun Jan 17, 2010 9:47 pm **Posts:** 264

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1341419/Chaos-European-airports-Charles-Gaulle-roof-risk-collapse-heavy-snow-mass-cancellations-continue.html

Not their finest hour either it seems.

slilley · **Joined:** Thu Jun 10, 2010 5:58 pm **Posts:** 54

AOB wrote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338960/Millions-online-presents-stranded-snow-ice-cause-backlog.html

Millions of online presents stranded as snow and ice cause huge backlog... and the weather's getting WORSE

Capitals again at the end of the sentence? Anyway, this really is the Mail Versus Snow because the weather is consciously and deliberately preventing presents from getting delivered. Front page news this!!!

Quote:

Families are facing a Christmas of disappointment, with millions of gifts bought via the internet not arriving in time, warn experts.

They forgot "middle-class" before it.

Actually you are wrong because the correct phrase in Daily Mailland is hard working families. Those claiming benefits you see deserve to have their Christmas ruined because they havent worked for the money to buy the presents that arent being delivered.

glasgowgril · **Joined:** Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:51 pm **Posts:** 1439

May I just say here, since I can't say it anywhere else for fear of hurting my family's feelings, that I am ecstatic that Christmas Day is nearly over. Dec 27 = excellent day because it's as far as I ever am from a)another Christmas and b)another duty visit to the MIL. God, I hate Christmas.

Mr Mordon · **Posted:** Sun Dec 26, 2010 7:43 pm

I always look forward to seeing family at Christmas (particularly this year). But after a two or three days, or a few hours in some cases, you realise what irritating old farts some of them can be.

Should be good tomorrow though. Two uncles will be seeing each other for the first time since the election. One's a lib dem councillor, the other a classic tory...

:lol:

horacegoesskiing · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:58 pm

A couple of days ago a story entitled So how come America copes? UK grinds to a halt in inches of snow, but US is back to work after THREE FOOT deluge appeared. After reading this you'd be forgiven for thinking that the UK is incompetent and incapable of dealing with any of the white stuff, while other countries are just sooo much better than us and naturally a great way to further bash our once great country.

Yet not long after this appeared we also have the following entries:

New York's demolition derby: City clean-up crews wreck cars in frantic bid to clear streets amid apocalyptic post-storm scenes

New Year in New York scuppered as extreme weather causes havoc with air-travel in and out of the Big Apple

'Complaining doesn't help': Bloomberg draws fury of New Yorkers still stranded four days after epic storm

Four hundred passengers forced to spend eight hours on freezing New York subway train after ice caused power cut

Now that the 'monster blizzard' has passed the REAL nightmare begins, as stranded air passengers forced to endure 'airport lottery'

Now I know New York probably endured a lot more snow than we did, but do these stories really paint a picture of a nation that can handle snow better than we can? And will the Mail apologise for using the Americans as a standard with which to beat the British with? I think not x 2! The slow never ending trickle of newspaper sewerage continues to flow every day.

Malcolm Armsteen · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:56 am

Summed Up!

davidjay · **Joined:** Tue Feb 17, 2009 8:24 pm **Posts:** 3938

horacegoesskiing wrote:

A couple of days ago a story entitled So how come America copes? UK grinds to a halt in inches of snow, but US is back to work after THREE FOOT deluge appeared. After reading this you'd be forgiven for thinking that the UK is incompetent and incapable of dealing with any of the white stuff, while other countries are just sooo much better than us and naturally a great way to further bash our once great country.

Yet not long after this appeared we also have the following entries:

New York's demolition derby: City clean-up crews wreck cars in frantic bid to clear streets amid apocalyptic post-storm scenes

New Year in New York scuppered as extreme weather causes havoc with air-travel in and out of the Big Apple

'Complaining doesn't help': Bloomberg draws fury of New Yorkers still stranded four days after epic storm

Four hundred passengers forced to spend eight hours on freezing New York subway train after ice caused power cut

Now that the 'monster blizzard' has passed the REAL nightmare begins, as stranded air passengers forced to endure 'airport lottery'

Now I know New York probably endured a lot more snow than we did, but do these stories really paint a picture of a nation that can handle snow better than we can? And will the Mail apologise for using the Americans as a standard with which to beat the British with? I think not x 2! The slow never ending trickle of newspaper sewerage continues to flow every day.

Now, let me think. What would cope better - New England with six feet of snow, or Georgia with six inches? And why? The same principle applies to us.

Bails · **Joined:** Tue Jun 08, 2010 10:16 am **Posts:** 957

Grrr, we can't cope with snow

Says Canadian writer, in Canada :wink:

I thought Canada never slowed down, despite having 7 miless of snow everyday between September and May :roll:

Bones McCoy · **Joined:** Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:08 am **Posts:** 7417

Looks like 2011 is the year the rugged colonials turned softer than a LibDem manifesto.

Those Canadians used to hike 60 miles to the shops through 12 fot snow in only their underpants and one of those tartan hats with the side flaps on.

Now the Aussies - one time masters of the Olympic pool and surfer heroes are evacuating a city because of a bit of water.

Outside the Empire: Germany, Switzerland and USA have all been stopped by snow.

I wonder how many Mail scribblers will remember this by next December.

The Mail versus Snow

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