Snow!

Well, apparently Britain descended into chaos yesterday, brought about by that great influence on us that is the weather. Or so the BBC would have us believe (here is one of many stories from their website).

I don't want to sound like i am downplaying this, but when serious weather hits us like this there is nothing we can do but accept it, Britain is perfectly well equipped to deal with rain, we get enough of it, but snow, forget it. In fact it seems that the real problem here is not the weather itself but the fact that people couldn't get to work, and i suspect for many they chose not to go to work instead enjoying the only thing that makes cold winters worth enduring.

The BBC repeatedly asked the question "could anything have been done?", while showing footage of some Londoner complaining that the roads weren't gritted and likening the situation to being in a third world country (about 30 seconds in to this video). With much public transport unable to operate, the only way for anyone to get to their oh-so-important jobs was to drive themselves through hazardous conditions. No wonder then that there was a large number of road accidents and injuries.

The way i see it, much of this chaos could have been avoided if everyone just took the day off. All the workers for big corporations who actually contribute very little to society should not put their lives and the lives of others at risk just so they go into the office and attend their apparently important business.

Ok, i'm not saying everyone should stay at home, doctors and medical professionals are needed more than ever in cases like this, similarly people still need to eat. But in times like this, people need to shift their priorities and think about each other, think about their community, their friends and family. Apparently the snow cost our economy £1.2 billion. I don't know how they work this out but in the current economic climate thats not the worst day we've had.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on the things that the BBC addressed, i have a very basic understanding of economics at best. I just can't help thinking that if our priorities changed a little, yesterday could be seen as an exceptional day with exceptional weather, rather than some sort of small scale natural disaster as it seemed to have been reported. Life goes on, tomorrow the snow will be gone and everything will return to normal, yesterday could have been fun for everyone. I think the kids had the right idea.