.....on BBC News this morning, the Shadow Transport Minister blamed the coalition government for yesterday's chaos on the roads.
If Labour had still been in power, she claimed, the problem would have been resolved more quickly and handled far better because Labour wouldn't have made the rapid cuts the present government has made and so more gritters would have been out and the railways would have run on time.
A couple of things - the railways pretty much did run on time and with the odd exception the timetable for today will be the usual Sunday schedule.
Secondly - if the Labour government would have coped better - why did we have similar chaos last winter? They were still in charge then weren't they?
Thirdly - it matters not if you have a million gritters - when 4 inches of snow fall in 25 minutes - you are never going to get on top of it quickly! (And it did fall at that rate - Brent Cross Shopping Centre closed because of the heavy snowfall and - see below - my son and his wife had first hand experience!)
Stupid woman! Still, she did look as if she'd just got out of bed - bags under eyes, hair all over the place. And as the interview went on - you could see she had little conviction about the stand she was making. Maybe she's been "wheeled out" to use the occasion to have a pop at the Government.
Anyway - the chaos affected our son's travel plans. They got to Dover OK on Friday and had a good nights rest. That's where the good news ends.
They left Dover at 08:50 on Saturday morning with "a dusting of snow and light traffic." They finally got here at 11:25 PM!!! That's a journey time of 14.1/2 hours! Lets hope the journey back to Folkestone on 27th December will be easier!
Not a lot else to tell you - the camera has barely been used since my last post and Belper Town beat New Mills 4-1 in the Derbyshire Senior Cup (away - on a Monday night - over the snow and ice-covered hills around from Sheffield - so we didn't go.)
The Duchess' recovery continues - we've had a couple of expeditions into Sheffield and the Christmas shopping is getting sorted. I finish work for the holidays on Monday 20th (tomorrow) and plan to spend some time sorting out the "bits and pieces" pressies. I am actually waiting for a parcel mailed by Firebox.com on 26th November which still hasn't arrived although to be fair - the mail has started to come through again. Had a tougn time this last 3 weeks or so the posties!
Work is still very busy - and the heavy load looks set to continue at least into April or May next year. Right sort of problem to have though - my old boss used to say "Better to be looking at the work than looking for the work.." Wise words.
Right - that'll do for now - more follows when I get a mo - hopefully with some pics for you to look at - I'll try to find something to photograph - but not snow - I'm sick of the snow... so for now - "Laters!"
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