True grit
Wales Business — By Daran Hill on January 10, 2010 10:42 am
The country is grinding to a halt, fear some
IT’S SNOWING again in Cardiff. We’re just not used to it. Presumably the latest flakes will see another stampede to every shop across this city to buy up EU butter mountain proportions of milk and bread. And every last sledge in the store.
I am resisting the panic which is gripping those around me. One of my Christmas presents was a nice new dressing gown and I’m relying on that to get me through the cold snap rather than fretting about survival. The Sunday papers are gloomy enough on that front without me joining in. There will be mountains of corpses on the scale of the Seige of Leningrad if some accounts of “snow misery” are to be believed. And we all know what ended up happening there. But to me a different historical event is a closer parallel. The decision to supply councils with 12,000 tonnes of white salt for use on Britain’s roads rather than send it to Germany for food and chlorine production is the repayment of a moral debt incurred during the Berlin Airlift. And we are grateful to the German nation for enabling our survival in this, our darkest yet whitest hour.
Last week I was stuck in Cyprus for an extra day’s holiday when Cardiff Airport was closed due to the weather. It was an inconvenience, no more than that, but did have a political significance. The holiday rep who announced to the bus full of travellers that we wouldn’t be getting home was clear who she blamed – the Prime Minister. She announced over the tannoy that Brown was behind the reductions in grit stock supply affecting the airports and Welsh roads. This got a round of applause from a mob ready to burn an effigy if it could. I did not join in, but nor did I have the heart to point out that gritting was a local authority function and that the Welsh Assembly Government was the key strategic player here. It was simple: or so I thought.
At the time I was confident it was a properly devolved matter, but having read Betsan Powys’ blog I am now not so sure. Maybe the holiday rep had a better grip on the nuances of devolved policy areas than I did. Hopefully the rest of the passengers will have consulted the Welsh political blogs once they got home too, and are therefore reassured in their perceptions.
The roads and the food stocks of course aren’t the only problem. Energy supplies are also a matter of concern and have prompted a public statement from Number Ten. Evidently Gordon Brown has been worried by reports from a Cypriot bus. Such weekend Prime Ministerial pronouncements are normally only reserved for national calamities like the death of Jade Goody but now we have a Prime Ministerial podcast to reassure us that the country will survive and rumours of imminent energy supply collapse are misleading and over-stated. But that of course will only reassure those who are prepared to be reassured. Charities speaking for older and vulnerable people are adamant that more needs to be done and it needs to be communicated better.
And of all who are frail and vulnerable this winter it seems that Gordon Brown himself is facing a particularly bleak midwinter. The full frontal attack on him in today’s Mail on Sunday by Peter Watt, heavily and ruthlessly promoted by Iain Dale, is devastating. And it’s the first excerpt of three being run before the book is released in a fortnight’s time. I have often thought of the Mail on Sunday as being Gordon Brown’s biggest enemy – after Charles Clarke of course. But today ex-General Secretary of the Labour Party Peter Watt may just have pipped them both. Ouch.
The cold front will continue for some time to come.
Tags: Energy, Gordon Brown, snow
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5 Comments
Ah the dwindling supplies of salt and grit may not be Gordon Brown’s fault – but it’s still his fault that its cold and snowing
it’s Labour’s fault that the schools are shut… h&S and compensation culture bringing the country to a standstill, not the snow. If our kids and run around the streets surrounding the school having a snowball fight they can bloody well be sat in a nice warm classroom.
Perhaps Al should check his/her understanding of the local management of schools – the decision whether to close a school rests with the Headteacher (and Governing Body) not the local council, WAG, national government or even the Labour Party! (other than in some authorities where they advised all their schools to close)
WelshKatie – Yes but surely local councils’ education departments have a role in guiding their schools as to what is expected and surely, if health & safety is the reason they have been closed (as we’ve been told locally), the Councils have a role in working with the schools to overcome those problems. With thousands of parents having to stay home with their children, to the detriment of other services and the economy, we can’t just say it’s nothing to do with any area of goverment.
I have been leafletting outside tube stations in NW6 every morning this past week and have observed that every single one of the many independent (private) schools in the area have been open, whereas around half the state schools were closed – curious!
My mother, who is housesitting for me in Cardiff, informs me that whilst lorries and all sorts of vehicles were merrily traversing the street on Thursday and Friday (it is a bit of a shortcut – in fact the cyclists have also been darting round because in icy conditions it’s far safer than the section of Taff Trail), Cardiff Council could not collect my refuse for “Health and Safety” reasons …
I am fully in favour of strict health and safety legislation to protect workers in an increasingly non unionised and casual labour market, but one can understand why the Dan Hannan’s of this world recieve a sympathetic hearing when railing against the absurdities to which this kind of thing gets taken to excuse weak public service management.