Trademark Gamers

OK this blog isnt quite going to be as drastic as the title suggests and probably more of a grumble at the state of the country rather than anything else. As you may or may not have read the past 2 days has seen the UK hit with some major amounts of snow and as normal most things have come to a grinding halt across the country.

London buses werent operating, most train operators also stopped services and the M1 (main motorway) was clogged up for a considerable time. For me it was a bit of a pain in the ass for a number of reasons. Mainly due to the fact it ruined the plans I had for Monday 2nd February and may end up affecting the rest of the week.

I was meant to be doing a 3 hour drive for a meeting as part of one of my University projects which became pretty impossible due to the weather and this annoyed me as it proves the UK is really unprepared for anything other than "normal"; our flood defences are crap when it rains too much, we cant cope with excessive heat in the summer and when it snow the country grinds to a halt. OK I didnt want to go to the meeting anyway but that isnt the point and the fact it got turned into a conference call I could take part in from the comfort of my own home was just a lucky bonus.

The thing that annoyed me most was that I couldnt really travel anywhere unless I opted to walk and that ruined my evening plans. I was meant to be taking a good friend out for dinner as it was her birthday on Sunday 1st February but alas the amount of snow that came down on Monday but an end to that plan and so now we have to re-arrange.

I appreciate that countries in Scandinavia, Russia and places like Canada get a lot more of this sort of weather and are far better prepared to cope but it really is a sorry state of affairs that a country like the UK (although economically broke) cant grow some balls and make some better judgements about the weather. It was estimated the closure of businesses and employees unable to get to work on Monday cost the economy nearly £1.2 Billion!

Yes we only have it a few days at a time, but on an island where the weather is so unpredictable and we get it from all sides (this time from Russia) it would make sense to look at a plan and the infrastructure and see if we can sort it out. If the climate keeps changing it could become more of a "real" issue in the coming years and wouldnt it be better to change things now rather than wait until it is too bad? (and this goes for excessive heat as well)

Oh well, grumble over I suppose but it is really frustrating that pretty much EVERYTHING in the UK stops when the weather isnt what people are used to and are unprepared for. The phrase "living in the dark ages" comes to mind sometimes!