Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/02/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]When I lived in the Pennines in the early 70s it snowed fairly often and the snowploughs were out early, so there was very little disruption. When I moved to London there was almost never any snow, so there were no snowploughs, just a few grit and salt trucks. 10mm of snow and there were accidents everywhere. Due to budget cuts things which are expensive and rarely used are no longer on the agenda. Even on the Pennines, where admittedly winters have been getting milder until recently, cuts mean there is no way to clear roads of snow any more. Public transport likewise, it is cheaper to have disruption 2 or 3 days a year than invest in expensive machinery and employees who would rarely be used. People don't even use winter tyres here, unlike Germany where I go most weeks. It is irritating for a Northerner to see the Southerner's inability to deal with snowy conditions, but better that than the (at least) 3 months of purgatory my family in Montreal have, however many efficient snowploughs! FD On 3 Feb, 2009, at 00:29, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote: > The news this evening was full of accounts of a "catastrophic" > snowstorm which buried London in a foot of snow. All activity in > London came to an abrupt halt save for snowball battles amongst > bankers and stockbrokers who couldn't get to their usual jobs of > cheating the public. This verifies my opinion that most Brits are > weather wimps. A foot of lake effect snow falls every winter day > before lunch in upstate NY, Vermont and New Hampshire. Buffalo and > Syracuse had over 100 inches so far this year and Punxitawny Pete > promised another 6 weeks of winter to come. > > Can some UK photographers brave the snow with their Leicas and > document the trials and tribulations of snowbound Londoners? Perhaps > Gee Bee can show pictures of cross country skiers in the Lake Country. > > Larry Z > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information