Snow
So everywhere is chaos. Why? Because nowadays everything works to due process and best practice and for snow, because we do not get a lot of it in the south, there is no plan. But I have lived in the south all my life. We used to have snow and coped well enough. We even manged big stuff like the war and got on with our day. What has gone wrong?
To begin with people saw it as their duty to make their own preparations. Many cars were fitted with chains on their tyres and others fitted winter tyres with massive treads on the driving wheels, mostly then at the back. Every farm had a snow plough which attached to a tractor and the farmer was paid to keep the roads near the farm open. In the towns all the council outside employees were mobilised (in the days of a large direct labour force) with shovels and grit in handcarts to go all round the town in gangs to make the pavements safe and the roads passable. Main roads and railways were ploughed 24 hours a day with special teams of four or six on board the snow ploughs with shovels to cope with the unexpected. There were still problems, but only in the very worst conditions and then not for long.
There was no vast investment. There was a great deal of make do. What there was a lot of was initiative, common sense and clear purpose. There was improvisation. There was also a huge diversion of labour from activities halted by the snow to new emergency tasks. But there was something else. More of everyday life was in the hands of more local local authorities and when their remit reached the limit, of County, City or Metropolitan authorities which had much greater control over more generous budgets with power to act as their councillors saw fit.
What the last few days of suffering, disappointment and national humiliation have shown us is that just like our imploded financial model, our model for governance does not work either when put under stress. We need also to return to a rational approach to Health and Safety instead of the present ludicrous bureaucratic fundamentalism now operating.
A lady living not far from me rang the council to ask for someone to come and grit her lane as she feared for life and limb on the sheet ice. Of course they said. Only too pleased to help an elderly person in need. The Act says we have a Duty. But there will be a three day delay while we carry out a Risk Assessment, before we can let the gritters through as our first Duty is to assure the safety of the gritters.
Not only can we not operate like this any more, but we have to stop educating young people to suppose that this gibberish has anything to do with rational life. We also have to cut the slice of taxation handled by central government with all its waste and profligacy and increase the resources of local government so that taxpayers can keep a better eye on where their money is going. When their councillors go mad they can vote them out. There will also be positive and invidious comparison between one authority and another. That sort of competition works.