Snowed under?

Don't forget your snowshoes...

Anyone who was staring forlornly at an indicator board on Monday morning was asking the same question. How could London, a world-class city, be brought to its knees by a few inches of snow? Other major cities have to contend with continuous snow: Stockholm, Helsinki, Reykjavik, Moscow, the list goes on – and these cities do not grind to a halt…

Buses were abandoned in their depots, planes were grounded, mainline rail services disappeared and most of the tube gave one last gasp and died. Many have seen this as a failure of technology to cope with the elements and have called for investment in new snowploughs and equipment to deal with the problems.

But Boris was right, this would have been a waste of money for a city that only occasionally sees heavy snow – especially when London’s problems had little to do with machines and everything to do with people. Many wondered how underground lines could be shut by snow. Because most of the drivers had failed to turn up for work, of course!

Similarly, the buses were prevented from moving because of the risk to public safety. Transport for London said all buses – which would normally carry 6 million people on an average day – had been withdrawn from service “due to…dangerous road conditions” endangering the public.

So was this a strike by another name? Did everyone just need a day off?

Well, it’s certainly true that for just a few hours people forgot about the credit crunch and concentrated on the crunch beneath their feet. That can’t be all bad.