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The Beast from the East


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6 hours ago, Margaret Thatcher said:

The elderly, young people enjoying a night out, pets and children are all particularly vulnerable to extremes in temperature - and the severe cold weather poses a real danger to health.

People on low incomes, pregnant women, and those with long term health condition are also at higher risk during harsh weather, says the NHS.

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What utterly amazes me about a wee bit of snow is how fucking terribly prepared we are for it, airports shutting, roads in gridlock and public services shut in a type of snow storm which the Canadians would consider tropical. It happens year after year and every time the authorities act like its a surprise.
I'm afraid this is the calling card of a numpty.

The red weather warning is the first time since the system was introduced. We definitely do not get this level of snow storm every year.

We also seem to be coping reasonably well.
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I'm afraid this is the calling card of a numpty.

The red weather warning is the first time since the system was introduced. We definitely do not get this level of snow storm every year.

We also seem to be coping reasonably well.

Get a grip, we live in a climate where this isn’t unforeseeable, on a similar latitude to countries which see even worse weather and cope much better. We should have better infrastructure in place to deal with it, my local authority is grossly underprepared in terms of resources, gritters, snow ploughs etc and act like its a big surprise every time we get snow.
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1 hour ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

What utterly amazes me about a wee bit of snow is how fucking terribly prepared we are for it, airports shutting, roads in gridlock and public services shut in a type of snow storm which the Canadians would consider tropical. It happens year after year and every time the authorities act like its a surprise.

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Get a grip, we live in a climate where this isn’t unforeseeable, on a similar latitude to countries which see even worse weather and cope much better. We should have better infrastructure in place to deal with it, my local authority is grossly underprepared in terms of resources, gritters, snow ploughs etc and act like its a big surprise every time we get snow.

In what way do 'act like it's a big surprise'?

In general, countries have the resources appropriate to the level of weather difficulties. It therefore should not be a shock that countries with worse weather are more prepared. They need to be.

It's far, far more complex than your sweeping generalisations make it.

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25 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:


Get a grip, we live in a climate where this isn’t unforeseeable, on a similar latitude to countries which see even worse weather and cope much better. We should have better infrastructure in place to deal with it, my local authority is grossly underprepared in terms of resources, gritters, snow ploughs etc and act like its a big surprise every time we get snow.

How many billions do you want to spend to make life a bit easier a few days a year? It certainly wasn't foreseeable by some of the most powerful computers known to man that the West would get hit harder than the East, and that Inverness would seemingly escape it entirely, with Invergordon a few miles up the road in blizzards. I'd rather they spent more fixing the pot holes.

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In what way do 'act like it's a big surprise'?

In general, countries have the resources appropriate to the level of weather difficulties. It therefore should not be a shock that countries with worse weather are more prepared. They need to be.

It's far, far more complex than your sweeping generalisations make it.


I feel that we are woefully under invested in terms if gritters, ploughs etc my own local authority has less than half the gritters it had ten years ago due to funding cuts. I’d also say businesses having to open their doors to provide somewhere warm for homeless people suggests we really don’t have adequate contingency in place.
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42 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

We also seem to be coping reasonably well.

Other than airports closing, train stations closing, schools closing, motorways down to one lane moving at 5mph, main roads gridlocked, and more, then yes, coping very well.

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I feel that we are woefully under invested in terms if gritters, ploughs etc my own local authority has less than half the gritters it had ten years ago due to funding cuts. I’d also say businesses having to open their doors to provide somewhere warm for homeless people suggests we really don’t have adequate contingency in place.
The homelessness problem is a much bigger problem than preparation for bad weather; and I agree that it's becoming a bigger problem due to poor resources.

What council are you in?

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Other than airports closing, train stations closing, schools closing, motorways down to one lane moving at 5mph, main roads gridlocked, and more, then yes, coping very well.
Have you been in the worst of this weather? Do you not think schools should be closed in those areas?

Fucking hell.

My council (Dundee) got a huge amount of stick for keeping schools open today. That looks like it's been entirely justified but it just shows that folk will moan either way.

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As a Scot who has lived in Canada since 2014, it's easy to laugh at how the UK is reacting to what I would now consider standard December-February weather. The thought of being told to leave work because of snow seems the funniest part of all of this, to me anyway. But I don't think it's fair to compare the two countries. It is a nailed on certainty here that it will snow and snow heavily at some point between November and March, it's also almost certain that temperatures will drop to the mid -30s with the windchill at some point. This happens every winter. So the local authorities have planned and budgeted for this. If it snows you can see the snowplows out within a couple of hours of the first snow flake, the building I live in hires a private plow to clear the driveway, the city opens up 'warming centres' for the homeless population during extreme cold alerts. It's seen very much as the norm here, because it happens every year. People themselves usually own a thick winter jacket and snow boots.  And while its not the law in Ontario, most people have winter tyres from November to March/April, insurance companies offer a discount to those who use them.

In the UK however,  the current weather seems like a freak occurrence, it certainly doesn't happen (to this extent) every year. I think I remember getting off work in 2010 when it was quite bad. It seems like a waste of money and resources to have Canadian levels of snow management in place when it really doesn't snow heavily that often. 

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