Londoners are a bunch of soft southern wusses and skivers
Francis Sedgemore, Monday 2 February 2009 at 15:21 UTC
We’ve had around 10 cm of snow fall since yesterday evening, the temperature is currently a balmy -1°C, and there is but a mild breeze blowing through Blackheath and Greenwich. Yet virtually all economic activity in the capital of this once great nation has ground to a halt.
From what I’m told by a solid-sounding Post Office call centre worker from up north, there is not an open branch to be found in my vicinity. But I can see many private vehicles on the roads, and it’s actually quite pleasant outside. The heath is heaving with locals throwing snowballs at each other.
“There’s no doubt about it, this is the right kind of snow, it’s just the wrong kind of quantities,”
…says Bonkers Boris, Mayor of London.
“My message to the heavens is: ‘You’ve put on a fantastic display of snow power but that is probably quite enough.’”
Oh for goodness sake, will someone please put a paper bag over Johnson’s head! I know he can be charming and witty in small doses, but this really is too much.
“Adverse weather conditions”, my arse; I’m off out for a run.
Feed the writer! 
Monday 2 February 2009 at 19:02 UTC
My wife left our Arctic Island home on the tail end of a blizzard (“real” snow) a fortnight ago on her way to London only to have her flight home today cancelled.
Snow is a logistical issue and there is no excuse for a huge modern city like London to come to a screeching halt when faced with a dusting of the white stuff.
Totally preposterous!
Monday 2 February 2009 at 19:19 UTC
If Copenhagen – which is mild, damp and drizzly for at least 300 days of the year – can cope with this amount of the white stuff, then there is something very wrong with London. With climate change we must expect a lot more out-of-the-ordinary weather events at temperate latitudes.
Making proper winter tyres a legal requirement in the UK, as they are in some other EU countries, would help. And as for airports, I’ve been in and out of Rovaniemi, Tromsø, Longyearbyen and other such places on numerous occasions during seriously heavy winters. They cope, so why can’t Heathrow?
Monday 2 February 2009 at 19:48 UTC
The greatest headline of the day (in the Naily Fail, where else):
“Not even the Blitz could bring the buses to a standstill… but 20cm worth of snow can”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133864/Not-Blitz-bring-buses-standstill–20cm-worth-snow-can.html
Man, did I laugh!
Monday 2 February 2009 at 20:03 UTC
Twenty centimetres my arse! Typical Wail, inflating the figures.
Monday 2 February 2009 at 22:16 UTC
Not impressed. Here in Transylvania we eat snow for breakfast – when we run out of bats.
Monday 2 February 2009 at 22:30 UTC
In London they live on Pret a Manger sandwiches and Starbucks coffee.
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 08:00 UTC
Snow in dat Lundun = National Crisis, only subject of news broadcast etc etc
Snow here up North = Yer what?
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 09:58 UTC
Mike – No-one’s interested in goings on up your way unless someone’s been caught doing unnatural things with whippets, or to hear opinion on European employment law from a flying picketer with four chins, expressed in between mouthfuls of pizza.
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 13:19 UTC
Of course the news in this case is London-centric! Is it news that there is snow in the Arctic? No – because there always is! There won’t be any major reporting of snow ‘oop North’, or out in the sticks, because there often is! LONDON on the other hand hasn’t seen this amount of snow for years; that’s what makes it news worthy.
Oh and I didn’t even attempt to go to work yesterday (I’m paid by the hour, so it was unpaid leave) – not because I’m a soft Londoner, but because I could not be bothered. Good for you all who walked 10 miles to work like brave little soldiers. I’m not paid enough, nor am I so enamoured to my company that I would trudge through even an inch of snow for hours to get to and from work. I’m not anyone’s slave!
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 19:14 UTC
Frances; I think you may have Lincolnshire in mind. And what’s a whippet? I’ve never seen one in my life. If you guys carry on like this I’ll rehearse my “Dart Board” theory of upmarket newspaper restaurant reviewing [clue - the bull = Notting Hill or whichever overpriced part of London the reviewer lives in] at inordinate length. London is rather like Blackpool – interesting for a few days but you thank God when you get back to Manchester.
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 19:15 UTC
And apparently its covered in snow. Har har
Tuesday 3 February 2009 at 19:33 UTC
Lincolnshire is north of Watford, and, as far as many Londoners are concerned, there be dragons.
Wednesday 4 February 2009 at 09:53 UTC
I know Lincolnshire is big – the whole of Holland is part of it, and for all I know the same is true of Belgium and Luxemburg – but I never realised it was that big.
Wednesday 4 February 2009 at 19:37 UTC
I still have not seen a fleck of snow.
Wednesday 4 February 2009 at 20:01 UTC
Be very, very afraid, for it cometh your way soon.
Monday 9 February 2009 at 12:27 UTC
[...] London has in its wisdom decided to grit the borough’s paths and pavements during the current Arctic weather conditions with discrete heaps of crushed bottle [...]