[James]

By ULRIKA JONSSON

Published: 03 Feb 2009

ALTHOUGH I left my weather-presenting days behind many years ago, I woke up yesterday, looked out of the window and thought I was back in Sweden.

Everything was covered in a soft, white blanket of snow and I jumped for joy!

Then I remembered I was in incompetent southern England and my heart sank.


Before I had a chance to get the kids into uniform, I received a message that school was closed. This was swiftly followed by a text from my nanny that her car had come off the road and she would be unable to come in to work.

What could be more fun than four children at home without childcare and a pile of work to get done?

But I suspect I wasn’t the only parent in that dilemma.
Holiday

Across much of the country, schools, offices, roads and public transport came to a standstill — you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a national holiday, albeit without the celebration or the planning.

Of course, it’s not the first time this country has come to a halt. When it happens because of snow it is almost forgivable but I recall when I arrived from Sweden in the Eighties, days of heavy rain forced trains to be cancelled and people were stuck at home or in cars.

In Sweden, it would take considerably more than a snowfall to bring the country to its knees. After all, we have snow pretty much on and off between October and April. How the Swedes would laugh if I told them that two inches of snow meant the national economy lost squillions of Pounds through days of lost work.

You see, over there we have things called snowploughs. We even have heated train stations/rails and even some roads. We use salt and sand to grit our roads and we even put winter tyres on our cars to stop us fish-tailing out of control on hills.

I recall British Rail, as it was way-back-when, acquiring ONE plough to clear leaves off the tracks. It was brought over from Sweden and was called a “scrubber” — I don’t think I need to tell you the fun my fellow presenters had with that one as I tried to do a serious weather report on TV-am back in 1989!

But it is unforgivable that a brief, or even a long, snowfall should bring about such chaos. London buses have been cancelled, trains aren’t running and roads are blocked with broken-down vehicles.

How is it that a nation which fought so valiantly in two World Wars, suffered rationing for years and endured horrific shock-flooding in the north of the country for two summers running can succumb so easily to the wonderful white stuff? Yesterday my kids were thrilled to be off school.

They should count their lucky stars they don’t live in Sweden — I used to walk to school in temperatures of -23°C.

Until Britain learns about anti-freeze, snowploughs and defrosting, I guess the rest of us will just get our sledges out, entertain the kids at home and hope that someone, somewhere will take note of the weather reports.

At least I don’t have to worry about the days when no one listened to mine!

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle2199090.ece

[Bells]

Having presented the weather herself (and, even if she hadn't!) she should know that Britain is not equipped to this type of weather because we're not used to it. And we're not used to it because we don't get it that often. It's ridiculous the amount of people who say stuff like "Britain comes to a standstill because of this snow." Yes, because we haven't snow like this in years. I think the last time was 1991 or something according to news.

Why on earth is she comparing the UK to Sweden? They practically live in those conditions all the time and are better equipped to deal with the weather, and therefore go about their daily business normally since THAT IS what's normal. I don't see why we should invest in anything to help us cope better in the snow when we only get it a few days a year (if that - it seems to be far less now). Just enjoy the odd day off, for goodness' sake!

[robb]

She has a point about the Southern Softies though...........had this snow fallen in Scotland or the north of England, it probabaly wouldn't have been deemed newsworthy. And during the floods that she mentioned, did we hear about millions away from work? Yes, the snow has been unusual, but you would have thought some planning might have helped. It wasn't as if it was a surprise, either.