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.

Snow surprise then?

We need a big umbrella over Britain it seems. We can't cope with snow, we can't cope with rain, and we don't appear to be able to cope with hot days. In fact, whilst there is a minimum temperature for working conditions, there is no such equivalent for high temperatures.

David Cameron is now beaming down from posters proclaiming that he'll get us out of the mess we're in. Perhaps the best policy he could construct would be one containing lots of joined up thinking. Britain suffers from short-termism. Just getting by is no longer any good. We need to learn from our mistakes and try our very best to get it right. So let's have some policies that actually mean something and let's have them without spin.

It was refreshing to hear President Obama tell the intelligence community they had failed to "connect the dots", adding "That's not acceptable, and I will not tolerate it." I hope the British voters will not tolerate any politician who is incapable of connecting dots.

Snow in Solihull

I see the council is predicting "snow disruption" as if this is a given. Another thing is that the chief executive is saying that school closures are up to the head teachers and the head teachers are saying it's up to the council. That's what I call responsibility (as we've come to expect it this country!). A decision will be made at 21.30. Don't hold your breath! I'm quite prepared for them to shut up shop and let the kids have a day off.

What if it freezes over until March? Have they thought of that?

UPDATE!!!

All schools will be closed in Solihull tomorrow, so no lessons learnt from last year then. I walked to Sainsbury's tonight and witnessed the traffic moving slowly. No gritting but perhaps it will happen overnight. Now we know that teachers can't drive in the snow. My suspicious mind tells me it has rather less to do with snowflakes but everything to do with ticking the boxes and keeping the rules in place. I also think, having witnessed the children getting extremely excited in the playground that a certain level of juvenile excitement is OK but too much is far too much.

I think they ran the white flag up the pole - couldn't see it - and decided it was all getting beyond their ken!

Snowed in and snowed out

Britain is in the grip of a snowstorm. Grip is a word much favoured by the media. It helps to send a feeling of helplessness over the poor British pysche. Rather like Private Fraser in Dad's Army "We're all doomed I tell you!", the council executives up and down the land are preparing for a period of battening down the hatches rather than attempting to deal with the situation.

On the Today Programme it was trumpeted as being the "worst weather in 100 years", "nothing like it before" and such nonsense. I wonder where they were in the sixties or late forties. Of course all this paranoia is just so they can excuse the fact that they don't have the necessary preparations in hand. Chief executives are paid a king's ransom but deliver paupers' promises when it comes to wintry weather conditions.

I'm quite prepared to walk to school tomorrow with my children only to find the schools closed because the teachers got stuck somewhere or they were told to stay home in the warm. What a world! David Cameron says that if elected he will get us out of this mess. Well, first off he could get rid of all the backsliders and excuse merchants and get a load of people in who do know what to do when it snows!

Solihull Council contributes £1M plus to recession!

It is estimated by the Federation of Small Business that Britain loses £1 billion a day in lost productivity due to the inability to cope with the snow. Last week Solihull Council, or at least the chief executive, shut schools down three days out of five. At a conservative estimate, this weak-willed decision has contributed at least £1 million from Solihull alone. You'd think these well-paid chief executives would be there to think instead of panic. Because panic is all that there is to show for it.

Tuesday was a complete waste of time. Money down the drain as very little snow fell. Thursday was a blanket closure and Friday was a joke day. That was when we all turned up only to be told the staff had snow phobia and were trying to maintain the assinine line put out by the chief executive. Now here's a man who used to teach special needs children. There have to be some special needs that he urgently requires, along with all the other local government chief executives who are taking the shilling but delivering very little.

First, they need forward planning. Find all those teachers living in cottages at the end of farm tracks without cars and check whether they can actually be bothered to attempt getting in. Second, ask the independent schools how they do it. Third, get the playgrounds cleared of snow. Fourth, stop wingeing about health and safety and begin to take responsibility for once.

I'm not against having fun in the snow. If we want to take a day off when it snows, let the country have snow days. However, I don't see that happening any more than I can see these cretinous council officials actually sitting down to unravel their own warped logic. After all, the chief executive and his minions got in so why not the school community?

We have got to a stage where, as the country's finances sink down the toilet, we are led by pusillanimous people with "agendas". Geoff Hoon is the Transport Secretary. He's about as helpful as a snowflake in Hell. As a trite retort to those who claimed he was ineffectual, he suggested people go out and buy snow chains for their cars. Now these might be a great help in Canada, but they would crack up our roads in no time. What then? More cost in rectifying the damage!

On the Andrew Marr show this morning, the weather forecaster was standing in the snow in Devon. "All the roads have been closed!" he said. Whereupon a van went by with no problem. Unaware of this, he prattled on about the "problems" to come. The BBC, the council chiefs and Buff Hoon himself, are all forecasting problems. Don't these people realise that common sense and a sense of proportion are required? I'm waiting to see if the odd snowflake comes our way tonight! I cannot take seriously and I have virtually no respect for this nonsense. We must get them to see sense or ask that the desist from their moronic ways.

We cannot allow billions of pounds to drift out of the economy, especially at this time, because some crazed "rationale" is driving their furrowed brows to hold some health and safety dogma up for sanctification!

Snow Sanity!

I walked to school today with the children. We were looking at Solihull Council's website until it was time to go. No "closure agenda" on for us. So we walked to school, but as we got nearer there were parents telling us that the schools were just shutting up shop. I walked on to find out the reality of it all.

One of the schools was actually open, technically, but "it was up to parents to decide whether they wanted their children to stay". The general gist of all this is that the chief executive had passed the responsibility for decision making onto the headteachers who were then left to impart to the assembled parents/carers/guardians that the final decision was theirs.

I'm not sure if I'm angry, sad or just bemused. We all walked or got there despite the snow. In fact everyone I spoke to thought there was no problem. However, the assumption is that snow is problematic. I can assure you that it is not so in Solihull today. We have a chief executive who appears to see snow as an automatic reason to close schools regardless. The assumption is that teachers cannot get in. They are the only ones in the workforce with this pre-existing difficulty. But I would have thought that, as a precautionary measure, teachers are asked whether they can get in if there is snow, so alternative arrangements can be made. (Always assuming that the roads are gritted, etc).

It is said that the playgrounds are unsafe for the children (for health and safety reasons) but not a finger has been lifted to clear them of snow. Independent schools carry on as normal, so why should the local education authorities think they are any different? If these chief executives cared about health and safety they would clear the snow from the playgrounds.

Now a sense of proportion would be nice, but I doubt that that is possible. If we have blizzards and everything generally resembles the Arctic, then nobody would or should demure from proaction. But it seems the chief executive works from closures first and then hopes that Mother Nature will bail him out. All the local government chief executives have been mumbling about snow and how this curse has suddenly afflicted them, rather like the Lady of Chalot. But an elementary geography lesson would tell them that wintry conditions like these are not a rarity in Britain. So no forward planning, no contingency arrangements, just a rough idea that things will get better if the sun shines! They are squabbling about salt and gritting supplies. Luckily Solihull has plenty, so the website tells us, but not enough for the schools to stay open apparently.

So what have I learned from all this? I think -

1. That local authorities close first in order to save money and have an easy life.
2. That nobody asks teachers if they would have any problems getting in should there be snow.
3. That independent schools generally take the opposite approach.
4. That playgrounds are deemed unimportant for snow clearance.
5. That there is no forward planning, or any that merits much attention.
6. That buckpassing is generally to be expected.

If we do not change our attitudes to this, then next winter will bring the same nonsense. Children are understanding that this is how it is. "My hands are tied!", is one thing they've heard. All we get is a vague "apology" - "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this will cause".

Britain cannot cope with drought, with floods or with snow. The reason - because of underfunding and a propensity for washing of hands by those "in charge". They take the shilling but fail on the delivery.

Fun time in the snow!

We did have some fun time in the snow this afternoon. I say in the snow, but it was more on a couple of inches of the stuff. Masses of people in Elmdon Park, Solihull toboganning down the hills. Lots of people walking about. Quite easy, actually.

I get back to see that the BBC is talking of "transport chaos warning over snow" and various other apocolyptic warnings about what snow can do. It's this sort of loose talk that befuddles the minds of local government chief executives.

Solihull roads were well-gritted today, but not enough for the teachers, who had all decided to take the day off, encouraged by their superiors. Salt levels are dangerously low, though. Paul Bettison of the Local Government Association told the BBC's Today programme that the UK should look to importing fresh supplies of salt. "That requires government to actually work with us all, and then we can do it as one - rather than, as we've seen, having this scrapping for what limited supplies are available," he said. Scrapping around is third world stuff. Surely they could anticipate that during an English winter the possibility of snow is more than likely.

I am amazed that people on high salaries have a very poor understanding of simple project management. It seems that unless they get a grip we will have all this on a year on year basis. Nothing learned, nothing gained!

Strange but true?

I think this is strange and I'm wondering if it is true. I heard on the radio that Salt Union is the biggest supplier of salt to local authorities and the Highways Agency. So I looked them up on the internet (as you do!). What did I find?

Salt Union trumpets loud and clear that they are "They only winter maintenance service worth its salt", so you'd expect them to be prepared, know about salt and everything. Nice wintry scenes on the video!

However, hidden away in the News section is this gem -

"Salt Union is using every means possible and taking extraordinary measures to meet the current need for salt. We have been operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week since the beginning of January and are extracting 30,000 tonnes per week but the unexpected and unusual weather means that even working at this level, demand is outstripping supply."

Unexpected and unusual weather? What is the purpose of being the only winter maintenance service worth its salt if snow is an unexpected consequence of winter?

Anybody out there coming to our aid yet?

Snowed out again in Solihull!

Well, well. A bit of snow overnight and all the schools close! Roll on the credit crunch. The economy revolves around the education system. I will be home with the kids. Perhaps the snowman can be made bigger?

The £1 billion we lose today in lost working time will pass the education establishent by. In fact, the casual approach to it all is shameful. Here's a "risk aversive" weak-willed headteacher! No grit both literally and mentally. Clearing the playgrounds of snow would be a good example to set. Have we no shovels left?

The message for the UK and for the rest of the world to know is this. Britain can't cope with snow. Can somebody out there who knows how to cope with snow rescue us from our incapabilities?

Snow's coming!

This report from Midlands Today shows the agonising decision that a head teacher has to make over whether to close his school because of snow. I'd suggest he gets somebody to shift the snow off his playground rather than casuallly kicking it with his shoe!

Britain shuts down! Everything on ice!

Hello out there in the cyberspace of the internet. We've shut down here in Britain. Guess what? We're losing a £1 billion a day. Hey ho! The credit crunchers versus the politically correct. Which side should we put in the stocks first for snow ball throwing? Neither, actually, because that's unsafe. Health and safety, you know.

Have you heard enough? Well, I have. The weather forecasters jokingly talk about "taking care", Boris Johnson clears the London streets of buses, the schools close because chief executives want an easy life, and so on. The message is loud and clear. Nanny knows best! Margaret Morrissey, of the Parents Outloud campaign group, puts it very well when she says the school closures send the wrong signals to children "that when things get difficult, you should just stay at home and have fun". Good way to fight the credit cruch too.

To paraphrase John F Kennedy -

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch of political correctness will be passed to a new generation of Britons - born in this century, tempered by sleaze, disciplined by a hard and bitter credit crunch - unless they fight for their ancient heritage, unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which these Britons have always been committed, and to which they are committed today at home and around the world.

Snow joke - what the rest of the world thinks of UK

This from The Times. All about the reaction abroad to the British panic at a bit of snow. "Pathetic, absolutely pathetic, a few centimetres of snow and the country is paralysed", says one. You have to admit he's right.

Will we ever learn?

Solihull snowed under by health and safety!

This morning the sun has been shining brightly in Solihull. Just the best type of weather for walking about, even in the snow. I rang Solihull council to get an explanation for this crass stupidity about closing the schools. In fact, I was also complaining, but I had anticipated beforehand that it would be a forlorn attempt. The girl answering the phone gave me some vague response about allowing people to get to work. "How about teachers getting to work?" I quickly responded. "Well," she said, "it's about Health and Safety!" "Ah," I replied, "the dreaded Health and Safety!". She then terminated the call.

It's no use really complaining, because they had an agenda already in place. Their paranoia is all about children not falling over, parents not skidding around in the playground, and teachers not slipping on the school steps. It is about not being sued, or rather, the crazed thoughts running around their heads that they may be sued. I'm also wondering what will happen tomorrow if the snow isn't shifted. Will they repeat the episode?

Reality has gone out the window. They can't or won't clear the snow. Cost too much! So they shut the schools which costs us all too much. Lost days at work, time not productively spent. I'm thinking of ways to sue them for my lost time, but there probably aren't any.

If they want to be in charge of education let them educate themselves first by going to a country that knows how to deal with snow. Even 10% of the tips they pick up will help alleviate this insanity. Because unless they change their ways, we can only understand that every time it snows the schools close down.

That seems to be the first lesson they want to teach the kids!

It snowed! Brum shuts down!

With an alacrity unknown elsewhere in the Universe, the school system goes into freefall in a sympathy action with the snowfall. Shut the schools, they screech. Let's add to the economic woes by causing more days off work. Educate by example. Show the children how you can really mess up an economy.

As with last year, Birmingham City Council along with my local council, Solihull "Metropolitan" Borough Council, have decided all schools will shut today, Tuesday. They will help the country lose over £1 BILLION pounds in lost production just today.

I can quite easily walk to school right now. In fact better than yesterday. However, the perceived wisdom, or insanity actually, is that it is unsafe to go to school. It is, on the other hand perfectly safe for children to be let out of school to wander the streets "having fun".

Yesterday lunchtime I was alerted to the fact that children were "being let go early" by a neighbour's child knocking on the door. We were not told formally by the school. I decided not to break with my routine and our son was picked up normally. Had he been in lessons? No, he had been watching a film, because there were only three of them left. I really feel the education establishment should get a grip and realise that snow is not a blanket problem. Our school is not a village school. I can readily understand that if a school is cut off by drifting snow, it would be ridiculous to attempt to push on regardless. But this is just hands up we can't cope stuff.

To the education chiefs of Birmingham and Solihull et al. You really are the least likely to get us out of this economic mess. We need people with brains in their heads not in their........!!!