Leader: Flaking out in the face of Mother Nature

Newsdesk • Published 7 Jan 2010 14:00 0 Comments

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RECESSION, international terrorism, the start of the General Election campaign, and just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, the icy grip of winter returned once more.

This time the warnings were more emphatic, the authorities were better prepared and the general chaos has been nowhere near as widespread. But that was largely because most people managed to get home on Tuesday afternoon before the snow began falling seriously.

Apart from the main roads, or for those people who know how to drive their 4x4s, travel was again pretty much a dud.

We can argue as to whether this week's snow has been the deepest since 1981, or even the really bad winter of 1963, but whichever historic landmark we choose, the fact is that the conditions were simply overwhelming for a country which is not equipped to deal with them.

If this is another manifestation of permanent climate change then we will need to adapt to such freeze-ups and behave like our Scandinavian or northern European cousins.

If not we'll just have to concede that Mother Nature's having the last laugh.

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