Fife Saint Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I don't think anyone needs to go. I think the frailties of the system we have in place has been exposed. Let's face it, it could have been a lot worse. People could have died last night. We can't lose the real issue in a boiling sea of politics piss. Let's adopt a centralised early warning procedure and look at technology, which IS out there, to aid us when this happens again. It will happen again, before the year is out perhaps. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theentomologist Posted December 7, 2010 Share Posted December 7, 2010 I don't think anyone needs to go. I think the frailties of the system we have in place has been exposed. Let's face it, it could have been a lot worse. People could have died last night. We can't lose the real issue in a boiling sea of politics piss. Let's adopt a centralised early warning procedure and look at technology, which IS out there, to aid us when this happens again. It will happen again, before the year is out perhaps. i'd agree a review of tech would be good. centralised early warning? whilst I agree this is a good idea generally I think localised responses need to be empowered to a localised commander e.g. oh its raining on the m77 it should be regritted immediately." people can still die. someone has to go. stevenson is the obvious candidate after his 'first class' nonsense and refusal to apologise till salmond obviously told him to. if only to engender public confidence in all the good ideas we've just discussed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xbl Posted December 7, 2010 Author Share Posted December 7, 2010 people can still die. someone has to go. You're normally a pretty sensible poster, but this is ridiculous, hysterical shite. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingscot Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 (edited) i'd agree a review of tech would be good. centralised early warning? whilst I agree this is a good idea generally I think localised responses need to be empowered to a localised commander e.g. oh its raining on the m77 it should be regritted immediately." people can still die. someone has to go. stevenson is the obvious candidate after his 'first class' nonsense and refusal to apologise till salmond obviously told him to. if only to engender public confidence in all the good ideas we've just discussed. Problem is it generally it would be O.K but you've got a very short window to get the gritters back to depot, fill them with grit, get them out at rush hour in traffic and they have to do the M77, A71, A737 etc all before 1 muppet has an accident. If you consider that a gritter may have a 60min run before 6am- that could be 90mins if he keeps getting caught in queues and heavier traffic. Even then the local roads are localised response, but they still were bad and struggled too. I don't disagree, Stevenson did a typical politicians wash hands/deflect answer and it backfired on him. He didn't choose his words well at all either. Saying 'we didn't expect snow to be as heavy' just makes you look incompetent and unprofessional- if I made a mistake with something for my boss I'd keep the mistake bit short and would be keener to tell him what I was going to do to put it right! He should have gone on offensive and tell people what your trying to do, advice and why. People don't want to hear first class stuff when they are stuck in their cars. Oh and FWIW I heard from a roads guy that it made no difference the severity of snow- because all gritters were back out to treat it after the sleet and rain. Edited December 8, 2010 by flyingscot 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qpsnapper Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Stewart Stevenson got ripped a new one Radio Scotland this morning as they played back the actual broadcast to him,hence his back down and apology. What rain was there beforehand?? As mentioned by a previous poster,there were lots of people going to work and you have to remember not everyone watches the weather forecast,hence the reason for them being on the road. I know the first minister doesn't control the weather, but you try telling the self righteous c**t that. Prime Ministers, Presidents etc,come out and give statements when other major incidents happen,so what makes Salmond immune from doing this, arrogance perhaps? BBC Scotland are being a bit cheeky showing the national weather forecast from the Sunday night news which did indeed say that there would be a heavy fall of snow starting around 8:00am. What they're not showing is the Scottish forecast which they showed on Reporting Scotland literally two minutes before the national forecast. This said that there would be a brief snow shower over West central Scotland in the early hours which would move away to the South West of Scotland. Two different forecasts in the space of two minutes, how do you know which one is correct? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saints1884 Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Just a thought,but why don't the councils in Scotland just use the big trucks that they use at airports to de-ice the roads? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doulikefish Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Just a thought,but why don't the councils in Scotland just use the big trucks that they use at airports to de-ice the roads? Many airports have been closed aswell though 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doulikefish Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Im getting a new kitchen fitted starting today and the guys that are doing it drove through from the falkirk area and said it was not too bad Living on takeaways for the next few days though 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Mojo Rising Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Anyone know what like the M8 is today? Really not keen on driving but the trains are off so nae choice. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H_B Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 People don't want to hear first class stuff when The actual response was at best 5th rate... Stevenson is a total fanny. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzyBear Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 You're normally a pretty sensible poster, but this is ridiculous, hysterical shite. With the current condition of the roads in the West Lothian area, there is still a possibility someone could die because of the conditions. To have some roads that have not been gritted since the bad weather started a week past saturday is disgraceful. Pavements also still not cleared. How any elderly/infirm member of the public is supposed to get out is beyond me. Somewhere along the line there has been a monumental failure in the treating of the roads and pavements. Normally I would say that it would be harsh for someone to lose their job but Stevenson's "first class" remarks the other night mean he has to go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffcsam Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 A80 and M876 are horrendous today. Loads of accidents and jacknifed lorries. Don't venture out driving if poss folks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Cuddy Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Many airports have been closed aswell though Well, they'll not miss them then, will they? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doulikefish Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 Well, they'll not miss them then, will they? We will have to get past smeato to get them out though 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H_B Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 How any elderly/infirm member of the public is supposed to get out is beyond me. Somewhere along the line there has been a monumental failure in the treating of the roads and pavements. Normally I would say that it would be harsh for someone to lose their job but Stevenson's "first class" remarks the other night mean he has to go. Yep. My maw hasn't left her flat since the first snows. The pavements are absolutely treacherous and haven't been treated at all. As I've said, had Stevenson said "look, this is the worst snowfall we've had for many years, our systems and procedures are completely inadequate..I will organise a review and can only apologise to everyone for the complete inadequacy of the efforts" I'd have had no issues. As it is, he has adopted a completely ridiculous stance, and made himself look like a total and utter fool. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Cuddy Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 We will have to get past smeato to get them out though I would phone him telling him I was about to open an envelope and that I needed a celebrity to attend such an occasion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doulikefish Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 I would phone him telling him I was about to open an envelope and that I needed a celebrity to attend such an occasion. More cunning than a cunning fox thats got a degree in cunningness from oxford miss d 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Cuddy Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 More cunning than a cunning fox thats got a degree in cunningness from oxford miss d More cunning than a fox that's been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford university. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Booth Posted December 8, 2010 Share Posted December 8, 2010 More cunning than a fox that's been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford university. The character who said that was dead just a few seconds later, didn't do him much good. Thaw on the way, +2C in Paisley tomorrow, +7 on Friday. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xbl Posted December 8, 2010 Author Share Posted December 8, 2010 Yep. My maw hasn't left her flat since the first snows. The pavements are absolutely treacherous and haven't been treated at all. As I've said, had Stevenson said "look, this is the worst snowfall we've had for many years, our systems and procedures are completely inadequate..I will organise a review and can only apologise to everyone for the complete inadequacy of the efforts" I'd have had no issues. As it is, he has adopted a completely ridiculous stance, and made himself look like a total and utter fool. He was correct though. It seems that as good a job had been done as possible, and it'd be very difficult for an improvement to be made. Nobody should be forced to resign because of a couple hurt feelings, or a couple ungritted pavements. Incidentally, perhaps the gritting experts might be able to confirm, but are the Scottish government in charge of pavements? I thought that was under the direct control of local authorities? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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