And another thing…

IT DOESN’T take much snow, does it, to bring the whole of the nation’s thought processes to a grinding halt. I mean, in other parts of the world, like Oslo and New York and Calgary, they don’t allow a few inches of the white stuff to paralyse our computer keyboards, to deep freeze our brains so that the only arguments we can make are those that can be extracted from the folder marked “hardy perennial”.

 Alas, that’s what a couple of right-leaning giants of the blogosphere have done today, and since they are both personal friends, I’ll leave the sarcasm at that.

First off, the estimable Benedict Brogan of The Daily Mail, makes, I fear, a rather premature judgment that Westminster is deserted because of the weather (he’s spot-on when he says that LibDem Opposition debates are highly expendable, however).

Then we have Jontahan Isaby, late of the Telegraph and now at Conservative Home. Jonathan opines:

So here’s the view I’m enjoying from my window as I tap away at the keyboard. But isn’t that the view that you’d get from many a home in New York for much for the winter? Or Moscow? Or Oslo? The list could go on. Yet I’m not aware that children go without an education for weeks or months on end in those cities because the schools shut whenever it snows. And the trains still run, and the tubes and buses still ferry millions of people to and from work. And as far as I’m aware, the airports in those cities remain open throughout the winter as well. 

So is anyone able to explain why on earth it is that it just seems to be Britain which comes to a grinding halt at the first sight of snow?

In fact, the first comment in response (from a Barry Williams) said exactly what I was going to say:

If you regularly get snow then it is worth spending a lot on money on the infrastructure to keep the roads moving. A snowplough on every road is worthwhile if you have thick snow every year for a couple of months. It is much less cost effective, as in the case of the UK, where heavy snowfalls are infrequent and usually only clog up the roads for a day or two.

Maybe in Dave’s Brave New World, we’ll have a plough on every corner, eh?

A few years ago I recall a number of motorists being stranded on the A11 (if I recall correctly) overnight because of a very rapid deterioration in the weather. On the Jeremy Vine Show shortly afterwards, one of the stranded motorists was interviewed. Inevitably, predictably and depressingly, he directed his ire at the local roads authorities: “I listened to the radio the night before and it warned of heavy snow. Now, if I heard it, the local authority must have heard it too, so why weren’t they prepared?”

What made me even more annoyed at this half-wittedness was Vine’s acknowledgement that the interviewee had a point! “But if you heard the weather warning, why did you go out in your car?” was the obvious retort. So obvious, in fact, that it never came.

Anyway, snow or no snow, I’m making my way southwards aboard a Virgin West Coast train and so far, so good. I’ll keep you informed.

I DIDN’T see Andrew Marr’s interview with Do-Nothing this morning, but according to Rosa Prince at The Telegraph blog, Dave’s insistence on doing it live from his London home may be a cause of regret. Technical difficulties resulted in those “charming, throwaway” lines Do-Nothing likes to employ being revealed to be entirely rehearsed and scripted.

Not the first time the BBC gremlins have struck Dave. His New Year interview with Jeremy Vine (which I did listen to) was interrupted at least once by a loss of the live feed between the studio and the radio van Dave was sitting in (cue accusations of BBC bias, pinko lefties wasting licence-payers’ money, etc…).

His handlers shouldn’t get too uptight about broadcasters’ preference for interviewing the Prime Minister in Downing Street. That’s been the practice for many years, as far as I know. And refusing to make his way to the BBC to be interviewed is hardly going to add to Dave’s gravitas, especially since technical issues are more likely to intervene.

I DON’T often get to see Panorama these days, but after watching tonight’s programme, I don’t think I’m missing much.

“Obama and the Pitbull: An American Story” promised to be an in-depth analysis of the divergent characters of Senator Obama and Governor Palin. Instead it was a superficial rehash of opinion that’s been reported in almost every newspaper in the past few months. Curiously, while there were a few talking heads from Chicago critical of Obama’s motives and experience (or lack of it), the only person who talked about Palin was her hagiographer biographer, who clearly thought the governor represented the Second Coming in female form but didn’t say so because that would be, like, heresy…

And I got the distinct impression that Jeremy Vine’s intro was recorded long before the “Palin bounce” had dissipated, and certainly long before the more recent confirmation that she abused her office. So there were a few seemingly hastily-recorded add-ons in the voice-over that jarred completely with the programme’s central premise: that a down-to-earth “good ol’ girl” was running rings round the elitist intellectual senator.

Poor.