Public should help clear the snow

Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, has suggested that the public could or should turn themselves into good neighbours and help clear the snow. I’m all in favour of that. However,  the British have grown up with the idea that the “government” does things like that. The welfare state has become something of a great fat sloth trying to shift from here to there. Labour have always seen the state as the benefactor. But under New Labour it became something of a malefactor. It’s all poking your nose in stuff. They couldn’t leave well alone.

I remember my father shifting snow. The neighbours took turns too with their bit. Nobody thought it insanity to do anything in snow. But then along came some terrible nanny and said you can't do this and you can't do that. Walking on ice? The council could get sued. So eventually, with all this tripe emanating from quango queens, the British decided to stop the neighbourly attitude and let it all freeze over.

I remember once going to the aid of a woman skidding and sliding in her car. She gave me a look as if to say don’t come any closer. Can’t think what she was thinking. Oh, yes, possible pervert. I wasn’t going to let that bother me. She was causing her tyres to create boiling water. Steam seemed to be coming from the road. "You need a good push", I said valiantly. She wound the window up after being given rudimentary instructions. One good heave and she was on better ground. She gave a limp thank you look and drove off. In today’s society you have to be bold and brave not only to withstand the cold of the weather but the cold of some peoples hearts. It’s not their fault. The real perversion is the crazy way we treat each other.

If Philip Hammond wants good neighbours let him encourage it with good grace. We need a sense of decency back into neighbourliness. Today it has been said it is OK to take photos of school nativity plays. If any group has done more to pervert the course of true neighbourliness it is the quago queens of the educational establishment.  Maybe they are seeing the light and eventually coming to their senses.

Good neighbours are relatively hard to find. Plenty of potentially good neighbours. I’d rather think most people would like to think they were a good neighbour. But many I speak to don’t speak to their neighbours. All we need to do is say hello once in a while and just say “If you need any help” and when it snows who knows what may happen.

Shovelling snow is a far better thing for neighbours to do than shovelling the soft-centred rubbish that we’ve been encouraged to accept of late.