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@dominic The UK is not at all geared up for snow, because you get so little of it.
Here in CH I've had over a meter of snow sitting around since mid Nov, and it often snows for a week at a time, we have the tools, the practices, the right tyres and snow chains, a permanent winter snow clearing force and everything works. Everyone on my street as a big snow rotavator. You just cannot compare,
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Countries that have heavy snow regularly have infrastructure designed to cope with it. Countries that don't, don't. Tampere airport in Finland never closes, for example, even in the heaviest snow. Heathrow closes at the slightest dusting. There's good financial reasons why the Finns made that decision, and the UK did not.
My son's school in west London is closed, which is deeply inconvenient for us in terms of child care. We can walk to the school, so it's never an issue for us getting there. But the local roads around the school are narrow, and difficult to navigate safely in snow, and the public transport is very disrupted. Teachers who live 10 or 20 miles away have difficult journeys into work, and may struggle to get home. Many of them will have kids themselves, so it's no good just telling them they have to put up with taking 3 hours plus to get home.
I'm lucky enough that I can work from home if I have to, but if I travelled into work, I'd face the likelihood of adding multiple hours of travel onto my journey, and if I had to make it back for childcare (which I often do) I'd be screwed.
I grew up in Scotland in the 70s and 80s, and remember going to school in very deep snow. I also remember days when the schools were closed because the heating couldn't cope, or the roads were unsafe. So it's hardly a new thing.
I made it in yesterday to be turned away. The snow drifts are barely 4 feet deep, don't know what the problem is.
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Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after youRemember, it's easier to criticise than create!
@Dominic You say that, but:
https://www.thelocal.de/20180228/extreme-cold-wreaks-havoc-on-suburban-trains-in-munich-and-berlin
It has been especially cold lately.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
I didn't make it to a training course yesterday, and I wanted to go. 1cm of snow but an hour and a half only got me 6 miles; it looked like another hour to the M25.
That's not me being a wimp. It's a shitload of cars in the way. I'm not sure how being braver would have moved those cars aside so that I could sail through like a champ, but I'm sure all the people calling others wimps will have an answer for that.
Tomorrow I have meetings in London; I can walk it to the station happily enough, and today the trains are running. There's more snow forecast though, so what do I do if the trains are cancelled? Yesterday proved that I can't drive there (unless I leave at 4 in the morning). Both meetings could be done via web conferencing, so why bother leaving the house? I'm certainly not going to do it just so that some miserable old bully on the inferwebs doesn't get to call me a wimp.
If you're calling the schools that, then it's down to legal considerations for safety, both to and from school and within the school gates themselves. One kid gets smeared, a parent launches a legal claim, you end up in a world of mess. If you've ever seen the amount of paperwork for a child falling in the playground who grazes a knee, let alone a broken wrist or other such common ice-related injury, you'd know.
@RobDavies you got it worse than we did and my son's school is closed and my office is on skeleton staff closing lunchtime.