Bollocks to the moaners....

Morning all, apologies for the moan but I feel I must get something off my chest. I am sick to bloody death of hearing people on the TV, radio etc asking the question:

"Why is it that a little snow in Britain causes chaos yet countries like Russia (cheating bastards), Sweden etc can cope with it?"

This question is pretty much wheeled out every time we have snow, much like we wheel out the same questions about dumbing-down when exam results come out, and yet the answer is so painfully obvious.

Countries like Russia (did I mention they're bastards?), Sweden, and even US states like Washington DC, New York and Illinois, know that each year, without fail, they're going to get a shedload of snow. I don't mean 5cm-10cm, I mean proper snow (see picture for illustration of real snow). Now, because they know its coming and they can guarantee its coming, they invest in the means to deal with it because they know they have too.

In Britain though, snow is not guaranteed every year, nor is it very often heavy, and again,by heavy I mean really heavy, not just a foot deep. So we don't invest because the cost benefit balanced against the risk of it happening just isn't there. OK? What is the point in investing millions at say Gatwick when, as it stands, the risk of snowfall in a year to the scale that will require a runway be shut down is so minimal?

You may not like it, but it's just an economic reality.

Likewise, the reason the trains have problems comes down to whether it is worth investing millions against the possible risk of line closure over a period of maybe five days, that may not even happen anyway. The reason Sweden and Russia can still run their trains is because all they're decisions are based on the knoweldge that they will have snow, whilst ours are based on the knowledge that we might, maybe, possibly, probably not have snow.

So please, stop bloody moaning and deal with it.