Snow balls

This week's "snow event" has sent the British into paroxysms of self-criticism, egged on by most of the media. Let's get a grip guys! It's ludicrous to complain that local councils don't have snowploughs -- how much tax would the complainers be willing to pay for expensive equipment that might only get used once a decade? (It's analogous to the complaint that you often have to stand if you travel on trains in the rush hour. How much would you be willing to pay in higher fares for extra carriages that would sit idly in the yards for about 150 hours every week?)

It's also ridiculous to suggest that "other countries do this better". Just last week the Obama kids' school in Washington, DC was closed because of snow. Washington gets snow far more often than London, and if there's any major city in the world that deals with snow worse than the US capital, I've yet to find it. Even in truly snowy spots -- the US midwest, Canada -- weather-related school and airport closures are annual events. (Ever seen "Trains, planes and automobiles"?) Monday's snowfall in my part of the UK would certainly have been enough to cause disruption in Toronto, particularly if it had happened early in the season. It was a constant source of amazement to me that Canadians could completely forget how to drive in snow between one winter's thaw and the next winter's first snowfall.

This is not to excuse the UK authorities from all blame for the problems that the weather has brought. I saw one sarcastic comment from abroad about the amazing phenomenon of underground snow in the UK bringing the Tube to a standstill. Much of the Tube is, of course, above ground, and the all-subterranean Victoria Line ran normally. Still, Tube guys, if you're reading this, there's an easy solution. If it's forecast to snow overnight, run a train up and down the exposed portions of the line all night to keep them clear of snow.

On a smaller scale, even if local councils can't be expected to invest in snowploughs, a few shovels wouldn't break the bank. This goes for businesses too. Is there a single supermarket anywhere in the UK that has cleared its carpark? There's a legitimate 'Elf and Safety concern here, but perhaps the relevant bureaucrats haven't made it into work this week, because of the bad weather.

Last but not least, there's the hoary old canard that the snow is "costing the economy" huge amounts -- most of the figures I've seen this week have been in the range of £1 billion a day. Given that much bigger disasters -- 9/11, Hurricane Katrina -- proved to have a nugatory effect on overall economic activity, I don't know where this stuff comes from. It's not as if there is a certain lump of economic output that has to be created on February 5, 2009, failing which it is lost forever. Companies and people reschedule appointments and work a bit harder once the crisis has passed. And anyway, nobody seems to take account of the businesses that benefit from the problems. How much overtime are gritter drivers, police and others making this week? And as for the guy who owns the saltmine up in Cheshire, he's probably perusing Bentley brochures and planning a month in the Maldives.