It's snowing again - I blame the government

 
This weather creates some strange alliances out there in cyberspace, where poor visibility is no excuse. The incisive Alex Massie of the Spectator may not always share my political outlook, but we are at one on Newsnight Scotland's bizarre interview tonight with the Scottish Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson. Not that I would have tweeted, as Alex did: "Some teuchter fool on Newsnicht is demanding that the SNP govt "apologise" for snow and folk then crashing their cars. #bbc #fail ". I'm a big fan of all teuchters and never use the term in a derogatory way of course. But the contrived line of questioning, with Raymond Buchanan repeatedly asking Stevenson to apologise to motorists, was cringeworthy. Repeatedly demanding contrition brought us nowhere near understanding what was happening.

The heavy snow hit the central belt suddenly at rush hour, meaning snow ploughs/gritters couldn't get access because roads were already gridlocked. In my experience in the city there was already black ice because of the earlier freeze. Now it seems the salt is not melting the ice because it is too cold and snow ploughs are breaking on the ice. There may be logistical lessons to be learned about emergency response to exactly such a situation. But this certainly wasn't how you find out. It was tabloid telly, and not what I expect from Newsnight, the only place on BBC Scotland's television output where you can hope to get serious analysis/explanation of current affairs in this country.(I like to praise when it does this well, as on the Scotland Bill.)

 Strangely enough, SNP-inclined blogger burdzeyeview, aka Kate Higgins, thinks differently from me and Alex. Kate thought Stevenson should apologize, because he is responsible for Transport Scotland which is supposed to keep the motorways clear. Perhaps the minister could have avoided the term "first class response" as Kate says, given that some folk stuck for 13 hours outside Harthill might not see it that way. The situation sounded extremely serious for many people who were trapped, particularly if police were blocking exist roads as was reported in some cases. And there were all those citizens who made things worse for others and the police by abandoning their cars. But the workers and all the emergency services are going flat out, and Stevenson was correct to give praise....It's just the conditions/timing etc are exceptional.

There is also the issue of personal responsibility. My sister has pneumonia and I was supposed to drive from the West End of Glasgow to Giffnock today to collect her little boy from school. As soon as the snow started we knew it wasn't happening and didn't even attempt the drive (another mum stepped in). Over the phone my sis revealed that she has been spending her convalesence reading newspaper motoring supplements for the first time in her life. "I'd no idea Ingear was so interesting...I'm thinking about a four wheel drive," she said. "Sales enquiries have rocketed in the last week you know." Women are suddenly keen on all sorts of stuff involving traction apparently. "You can get a wheel sock that stops all skidding!" continued sis. Surely the BBC should demand to know why  Stewart Stevenson has not personally given them away to every Scottish household?

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ADD There seems to be some sort of dispute over whether more could have been done earlier. Stevenson said last night that the weather was unforecast, but this morning accepted there was a severe weather warning on Sunday which somehow did not filter through to the various agencies on the ground. It obviously didn't make much impact on the thousands who chose to travel in these conditions. As I said in the original post, there will be lessons to learn but demanding ritual apologies is pointless.

Comments

[Jo]

The NN Scotland interview of Stevenson by Buchanan was appalling. Buchanan kept inviting him to "apologise". I thought Stevenson actually did very well to remain civil. Buchanan was foaming at the mouth with anti-SNP indignation. It really was outrageous.

I too tried to contact "Call Kaye" yesterday morning but couldn't get through. BBC Radio Scotland's coverage all day focused only on the Scottish Government and very much left individual councils out of it.

The other issue they didn't cover at all was the number of people who CHOSE to head for motorways HOURS after being warned not to start out. One woman interviewed late last night admitted she left home at 12.30 on Monday. By that time it had been snowing heavily for THREE hours. That was seriously stupid of her in my view.

Stevenson was right to point out that motorways already jammed with traffic could not then be gritted. As for weather forecasts, I'm in South Lanarkshire and our forecast did NOT predict what I saw falling from the sky between 9 and 2.30 on Monday.

Bottom line for me is that road treatments are for individual Councils to coordinate and deal with not the Scottish government. BBC Scotland has once again remained in the gutter over an issue where balance was required and failed miserably to include balance in its coverage. This was appalling indeed.

[Andrew Sinclair]

"Call Kaye" this morning had the shadow transport minister on. As I only heard about 15 minutes of the programme it may have been balanced out by having someone else on. It didn't sound that way though. Again the Beeb was on it's soap box about "someone's to blame". It would have been nice if they'd had someone on with constructive suggestions, rather than the constant negativity of "it's the Government's fault". After all, which party created this overarching nanny state culture?

How about this for an idea? Kind of like the Operation Stack that they run successfully on the motorways in Kent when the ferries aren't running. In the event of this happening again,an "Operation Snow" should be declared. This will require all trucks/lorries to immediately pull over to the side and stop. They must allow other traffic to pass freely. Trucks/lorries will then be formed into a convoy led by a gritter/snowplough (possibly with other gritters also in the convoy). A news announcement about the imposition of "Operation Snow" should be broadcast on *all* radio stations (Every car has a radio.....) as a rolling announcement. The motorway signs should also announce "Operation Snow" as being in force. Drivers of other vehicles should know that "Operation Snow" means that the HGVs will be separated from them and that they should use the outside lanes - with care obviously.

Would it work? I don't know. I've not seen or heard anyone floating any other constructive suggestions. Please debate it as you wish. I can;t see how it would make things any worse than they were. Maybe one of our Univeristies could do some traffic flow modelling to test the idea.

[Andrew simpson]

The BBC are attacking the SNP (not that they usually need an excuse!)just to draw peoples attention away from the fact that they are absolutely hopeless at predicting the weather, an inch of snow they said and light showers, how many parents set off on the school run on that advice? no mention of blizzards in the rush hour! Does anyone else notice how the forcasters use phrases like "chance of" and "risk of" and "possibility of" on the TV? just tell us straight! will it rain/snow etc? YES or NO!!! your the ones with all that equipment up hills and stuff! a pine cone on my back window cill would be more reliable at predicting the weather! Forget the BBC anyway, they are just the mouthpiece of the north british labour party, If you are lucky enough to have sky check out "press TV" on channel 515, they are showing a programme over the next few days called "The end of Poverty" dont miss this folks, it will open your eyes, it explains how empires and colonialism robbed countrys (and still do) of their resourses while leaving the indigenous people in poverty. sound familiar?

[cynicalHighlander]

Listen carefully.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wck5q/Good_Morning_Scotland_06_12_2010/

Cherry picking weather forecast by BBC reporter to attack government.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wck4h/Good_Morning_Scotland_07_12_2010/

[Doug Daniel]

Oh, and what's with Charlie Gordon being Labour's voice in the media all of a sudden, and yet not once has the reults of the FOI request into Wendy Alexander's donation scandal been brought up.

[Doug Daniel]

I just can't get over the fact that the joke some people were making a few days ago ("I wonder when people will start blaming the SNP for the weather?") has actually come true. It's like people heard it and thought "hey, that's a good point..." rather than "ho ho ho, blaming a government for the weather, what a preposterous idea!"

[wee folding bike]

Tricycle dealt with it all but the cars and trucks stopped in the way were annoying.

Cops in Coatbridge wouldn't let traffic move so eventually I walked along part of the cycle route to get past them.

Thinking about Schwalbe Marathon Winter spiked tyres.

http://ctcshop.org.uk/cycling/p/CTC/22/Schwalbe_Marathon_Winter_Performance_Rigid_Road_Tyre/5360053062/

Perhaps part of the problem was the timing of the snow. There would be lots of cars in the way of the ploughs so they couldn't clear it before the weight of traffic converted it to traffic generated ice.

Who bothers paying a attention to BBC Scotland "news" anymore? I don't like football or talent contests. The only interesting bit is their coverage of Elmer's weekly accusation with his twitchy eye and piece of paper. Unless of course he was so poor that they want to pretend he didn't happen, like last week.

[Hamish Scott]

Yes, good to see the opposition parties rally round in a crisis, NOT. This is the worst winter we've had since at least 1963 so it's hardly surprising that travel conditions have also been particularly bad. The weather forecast for Monday did not help and the Transport Minister was spot on in pointing out how this caused a lot of the problems. For example, the light snow shower forecast for the Edinburgh area quickly turned into at least 6 inches of snow in as many hours. Then all Lothian buses were withdrawn at very short notice. I doubt if either God or Lothian Buses checked with the Transport Minister first.

[samizdat]

Completely agree with Joan,when I turned over to Newsnicht I thought I had missed some appalling tragedy with hundreds of frozen corpses strewn along the motorway,but no It was the pacific quay mob trying to make a meal of it,ok it was an inconvenience a major inconvenience no question but trust the BBC to pounce on it like a rabid dog as a means to attack the SNP government and help their bosom buddies in Labour with their usual fatuous demands for apologies and resignations

[CWH]

I could not believe my ears when Raymond Buchanan asked and repeated to ask the Minister to apologise. For what exactly - people going out in their cars when commonsense should have told them to stay home? People complaining about gritters etc not clearing the roads when the roads were gridlocked? This type of questioning had little to do with getting information but was wholly about political point scoring.

Personal respnsibility indeed - how many of these people who decided to go out in a snowstorm were equipped with spades flasks of tea, chocolate bars, blankets and extra clothing in their cars just in case they did get stuck?

Mr Stevenson was wrong when he said that the severity of the weather was unexpected. The weather was forecast and duly appeared. But did anyone pay any attention to the forecast including ordinary motorists?

As to the BBC, how well did they perform during the course of the day in keeping people, who were stuck, informed via frequent radio updates about what was happening?

[Nconway]

I blame the bbc ,according to there website it said that there would be light snow not the six inches plus that we got.

[Alastair]

I could hardly believe my ears this morning - an interviewer on Radio Scotland actually asked Charles Gordon (Labour) if he thought Stuart Stevenson should consider his position, i.e. resign. The question was clearly intended to set up an open goal for the Labourite. How can the Transport minister be blamed for bad weather? does Charles Gordon think that the disruption would have been less had the Scottish Government been a Labour one?

No, of course he doesn't, but that doesn't stop him, aided by a very compliant BBC, attacking the SNP government at every turn. The question should be asked "Why were they interviewing a Labour politician on this matter anyway?" Weather is not a political issue.

We may have a free media but they certainly aren't remotely unbiased.

[L.]

Shouldn't Scotland's national broacaster have a weather forecast Direct Link to the Scottish Government then?

[Jason Stone]

All fair barring one minor point. The snow was definitely forecast. From the beginning of the weekend, the BBC's weather forecasters were predicting that heavy snow would fall on Glasgow and the rest of central Scotland from Sunday night onwards.

The problem is not a lack of a warning or a failure to respond to it... the real problem is the absence of an infrastructure capable of coping with weather as extreme as this. Successive UK governments have judged that its occurrence is too infrequent to justify the kind of infrastructure that enables Canada and Finland to keep moving when the snow comes.

It would be interesting to examine the cost benefit analysis of this decision as the UK economy takes quite a hit each time it's brought to a halt by this kind of weather.

I'd imagine that the impact of extreme weather on an independent Scotland would be even greater as, potentially, a greater proportion of economic productivity would be shut down by the kind of conditions we've witnessed twice this year.

If independence is achieved, Scotland would be well advised to examine the case for duplicating aspects of Finland's infrastructure or it'll risk being a hostage to snowy misfortune.

[cynicalHighlander]

According to Gary on GMS this morning Stevenson should be to blame for the snow and now call Kaye is on it, pathetic pacific quay mentality.

Ever since Amey and Bear were given the trunk road contracts by LabLib admin snow clearing went backwards.

The BBC should following this story especially when Wendy is chairing the Calman bill.

http://newsnetscotland.com/politics/1143-wendygate-electoral-commission-confirm-illegal-donation-name-was-altered

[Watta Tadger]

Agreed, the "Paxman" style attempt by Raymond Buchanan to force an apology was childish.

The BBC are still tyring this line at every turn on Tuesday morning!..