Just a brief comment about the ongoing snowbound shambles that is our transport infrastructure.
I watched Philip Hammond, Nanny's Transport minister, on Newsnight last night.
Goodness me there was a man who seemed to be perfectly "satisfied" that the state was doing all it could to deal with the issue.
LOL!
The same old bleating line "worst weather in decades" was trotted out, along with some banal comments that the main roads were all clear...errmmm...they most certainly are not.
He steadfastly refused to agree that the army should be called in to help (a call being made by, a.o., the AA).
He then went on to issue the Nanny state's mantra "only travel if your journey is absolutely necessary".
Well, here's a message for the minister and Nanny:
Most people (adults and children) have have to travel to get to their work, or go to school.
Is he suggesting that the country should simply stop work?
Admittedly, in my area:
- The mail has stopped
- There were no trains to/from Brighton station yesterday
- Gatwick was shut
- Corner shop had no papers, bread etc
- Local supermarket resembled a third world shop; it had run out of most fresh produce
- Hospitals have asked that only emergencies attend
- Schools are shut
- No grit on our roads
- No waste collection etc etc
In effect, it does seem that many have had to stop work. So much for the "plug in and play" environment that governments are meant to provide us with (see "Happiness").
However, Nanny has run up a £4.8 trillion debt.
How the fark are we going to pay that off, if we can't get to work to pay her ever increasing taxes?
The minister and Nanny are living on another planet!
Visit The Orifice of Government Commerce and buy a collector's item.
Visit The Joy of Lard and indulge your lard fantasies.
Show your contempt for Nanny by buying a T shirt or thong from Nanny's Store.
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Why not really indulge yourself, by doing all the things that Nanny really hates? Click on the relevant link to indulge yourselves; Food, Bonking, Gifts and Flowers, Groceries
Here's how those super-efficient Germans coped:
ReplyDelete"Winter arrived in Germany this week, with a major snowfall across the country. Bad weather caused traffic accidents, flight cancellations and delays and disruptions for railways. Meteorologists say the cold snap is expected to continue at least through the weekend.
"Germany's first major nationwide snowfall of the season struck the country Wednesday night and Thursday morning, covering the nation in a layer of snow between 10 and 20 centimeters (over seven inches) deep and wreaking chaos on railway, air and vehicular transport. A high-speed train heading to eastern Germany and passing through Frankfurt had to stop in the city because of heavy snowfall on the tracks. Around 200 passengers were forced to spend the night in the heated train due to a shortage of hotel rooms in Frankfurt. "
I'm sure we'll all agree with this comment from Der Spiegel:
ReplyDelete"Many Berliners whiled the day away in in bars to keep warm."
BTW, Ken, can you fix it so that we can post comments from the first page of the blog, like before?
Archroy re "positng comments", sorry I am being thick...I don't understand what you mean?
ReplyDeleteKen
Have you noticed how ready are local councils use 'Elf'n'safety as a pretext to ban everything they don't approve of or simply to stop people from enjoying themselves?
ReplyDeleteYet these same councils are putting their communities in real danger by not gritting pavements. Something that was religiously done during my schooldays back in the 1950s and '60s. I resent being told to clear the pavement outside my front door (anyway I live in a block of flats) when I pay council taxes to have such work done. Given that councils have morphed into nasty little corporate entities whose only mission is to maximise revenue streams (nasty corporate bullshit)perhaps we should treat them as private firms who are not providing the service for which they've been paid? Report them to their own Trading Standards departments!
Finally, have you noticed that pavement gritting stopped as soon as councils were absolved of liability for injuries caused by slipping on icy pavements? Amazing how 'Elf'n'safety goes out of the window as soon as it starts costing Town Halls - or is that just me being cynical?
Maybe I'm missing it, Ken, but on the old layout, when you first went onto the blog and all the articles were laid out day-by-day, at the end of each article there was a very clear "comments" button which you clicked on and then wrote your comment. Now it isn't there, and you have to click on the blog title to bring up the individual post on its own, and only then does the comments facility appear at the bottom.
ReplyDelete(Verification code "mulalit" - are you being sponsored by a yoghurt company?)
Hi Archroy, click on the "comments" tag at the foot of each post:)
ReplyDeleteKen
I agree that the local authority has become a psedo-corporate entity which gets my back up.
ReplyDeleteI am sick of being refered to as a customer by my local council because, if I were a customer in the true sense of the word, I would take my custom elsewhere.
Our local authority did well with the roads; all clear.....They did not do so well with the pavements. What annoys me is that local Nanny has removed all the grit bins that used to be on many streets. She also doesnot deploy all those hi-viz clad gangs that, because of the snow have nothing to do, to do a bit of pavement snow clearing. I mooted yesterday that those employed to cut grass, pick litter and blow leaves can't have much to do at the moment so why not give us a real service and value for money, and get them to clear the pavements?
I also get fed up with the constant use of "Nanny speak" by hi-viz clad local Nanny employees that like to be called officers and take leave rather than holiday...Examples of Nanny speak are as follows;-
We're doing everything we can.
We're all working hard.
This is the worst case of (insert word) since records began.
Do not travel unless you really need too.
I suppose these are better than Nanny's usual corporate speak which amounts to; Do as we say or we'll have you.
Just laugh at Hi-Viz.
Ah, got it. Thanks.
ReplyDelete"Only travel if necessary..." what a joke. We had to walk in snow as children & drive in snow when to get to work.
ReplyDeleteHere's a must read that I'm giving out this season (which isn't much) about Americans taking a stand against tyranny. It's a thriller so I wanted to share it with everyone. I recommend it.
www.booksbyoliver.com
Europe did get the snow & so did upstate New York so I guess others are still going to work.
Hold on, we don't want Nanny interfering in our lives, so we can be more responsible for ourselves. But after a little bit of snow, you are critisising Nannies lack of effort in getting involved and clearing it up for us?
ReplyDeleteFair play to some towns in Yorkshire that I heard about whose residents took to the streets with shovels to clear the snow away themselves (presumably without undertaking a full risk assessment too).