Iceland

I've been struck by the parallels between the current weather, and the recession:

• We've just had the heaviest snowfall in 18 years - when the UK was last in recession.
• Gordon Brown said he was doing "everything in our power" to deal with it - just like this recession.
• But not everywhere was "well-placed" to weather the storm - bit like this recession.

But there are some obvious differences, as well:

• This snowstorm started in Russia, then spread here - unlike the recession, which began in the US
• Lots of people enjoyed the snow yesterday - unlike the recession, which isn't much fun
• The snow will melt by the weekend - unlike the recession, which will be here for at least another year

The blame game kicked off today, with local councils getting the flak in London for not gritting the roads properly. Boris blamed the wrong quantity of snow - thank you, Boris. No-one's blamed Gordon yet, amazingly.

I'm not convinced by those who say that more could have been done to prevent the traffic chaos, lost business and school closures. We're not Russia or Canada, and we don't get this kind of snow very often. So it doesn't make much sense to invest loads of cash in a fancy resilience system. Indeed, if we did, the Taxpayers Alliance would end up screaming outrage at the misspent money and idle snowploughs.

The snow drama did give the Local Government Association's new chief executive a bit of primetime exposure. John Ransford has taken over from Paul Coen, who was asked to leave the LGA following a disagreement with LGA chair Margaret Eaton over restructuring plans, and the losses incurred by lots of councils exposed to the failure of those banks - in Iceland. Listen to Ransford's interview on the Today programme this morning (at 8.10am) - and Coen's infamous interview on Today last October - at 7.35am.

Oh, and is it just me, or are there more people carrying Iceland bags these days? Surely a sign that the recession is biting hard...

Comments

[Mark Wallace]

"We're not Russia or Canada, and we don't get this kind of snow very often. So it doesn't make much sense to invest loads of cash in a fancy resilience system. Indeed, if we did, the Taxpayers Alliance would end up screaming outrage at the misspent money and idle snowploughs."

You're right - it would be ridiculous to spend huge amounts on snowploughs, dozers etc that would only be needed once every 18 years. I do think that whilst it would be wrong to pretend gritting just always works like magic, there were clearly some local transport companies that over-reacted to the snow by cancelling everything unnecessarily. It was an error of judgement rather than a lack of costly vehicles.

[Dermot]

Thanks for your comment, Mark - I think we agree.

In another sign of recession, I see that bookings for Pontin's are up 30% this year - and the Hi-de-Hi camp are hiring 2,000 new people - http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/04/pontins-recession-travel