Snow-bound Britain: the lessons of the Beast
Schools closed all over the country. Drivers forced to spend the night in their cars. Widespread flooding. There were few of us who weren’t affected by the blizzards that swept across Britain last week, said Eve Livingston in The Guardian. And while it’s unfair to demand “military levels of preparedness” for such a rare weather event, our Government does bear some responsibility. Owing to austerity, cash-strapped councils are no longer able to properly maintain roads or to prepare a proper response to emergencies. As a measure of how our society cares for people, “snow is a hot political issue”.
It wasn’t snow that paralysed Britain, said Peter Hitchens in The Mail on Sunday. It was lawyers. A manageable situation was turned into a crisis by officialdom’s “terrible fear of being sued”. Major stations were closed because of fears that passengers might slip on patches of ice. One head teacher was so worried about snow-related injuries, he banned pupils from even touching the stuff. This is what happens when a society is overtaken by a craven health-and-safety despotism. But we shouldn’t just blame lawyers, said Philip Johnston in The Daily Telegraph. Journalists also contributed to the paralysis, by using apocalyptic terms like “the Beast from the East” and warning people not to venture out. Then there are the train companies, who had an incentive to cancel services: Network Rail compensates them for disruption and often they end up with more than they have to pay out to disgruntled passengers.
Now that the snow has melted, it has revealed a more crucial danger – Britain’s energy policy, said The Daily Telegraph. During the blizzard, the national grid warned that the UK might not have enough gas to meet demand: the closure of coal-fuelled power stations has left us perilously dependent on foreign suppliers. Look on the bright side, said The Scotsman. If we now recognise the need for more domestic sources of energy, so much the better. Some of those forced to work from home may have found a better way to live. And the many stories of people who went out of their way to help others in the snow remind us that we remain, by and large, kind and decent people. In a world dominated by bleak headlines, that is a heartening lesson.