Snow in the south of England

Little else but snow has happened in the south of England this week - and now it seems to be spreading to other parts.

Last Sunday was very cold, then overnight Sunday-Monday it managed about 12 inches of snow in an hour. The snow had been forecast, but our snow clearance people were temporarily overwhelmed.

We woke up on Monday to a blanket of snow over Epsom - something which has not happened for 10 years or more. Local roads more or less impassible for most of the day, but main roads started opening up during the day. Lots of vehicles got stuck and were abandoned, adding to the difficulties of those still trying to move about. Those people not trying to move about or get to work had a good time building snowmen and such like. We even had a sprinking of them in Epsom market place. The picture, from the Daily Mail, is, it seems, of a celebrity called Lily Allen. But not so celebrated that I had heard of her before. More information can be found about her at http://www.lilyallenmusic.com/lily/. But she did a better job of rolling her snowball than I did; at least it is ball shaped while mine was cylindrical, having been too lazy to vary the direction of roll.

Some of the snow is still hanging about although life is now more or less back to normal. So now it is time for the witch hunt. Why did the gritters not get out overnight Sunday-Monday? Why did the local councils not have enough salt and grit stockpiled? Who was responsible for the salt supply chain? Who thought it was a good idea to stand all the buses down? Close all the schools? Why don't we have a rule like the Danes do which says you have to sweep the smow off the pavement outside your house? Why don't we have a rule like the Norwegians which says you have to put special snow tyres on you car during the winter? The whole business has generated an impressive amount of media coverage; a welcome change from all the financial doom and gloom which has been our staple diet for months.