Christmas eve - I hope everyone is home and well

Just a quick note for any of my readers who are online tonight instead of being at home with their families enjoying the annual argument and crappy television : have a Merry Christmas.

Winter brings England to a standstill

It's amazing to me that a simple 2 inches of snow can bring an entire country to its knees. I'm in England right now, which is gripped in the midst of what the media are laughably calling "blizzard" conditions, meaning the entire transport infrastructure has failed. Trains have stopped running because of "the wrong sort of snow". Roads have iced up and frozen over because, despite thousands of tons of sand and grit being available in the transport depots, none of it has been used to grit or sand the roads. Bus services have stopped running, the channel tunnel is closed, ferries are running up to a day late and the four main airports are basically closed. Motorways are closed because chunks of ice are falling off bridges, and motorists are abandoning their cars everywhere. This of course has brought out the best of British. In one case, motorists abandoned their vehicles in a pub car park (rather than leaving them blocking the roads) and when they returned, found a clamping / booting company had clamped all the cars. Everyone was forced to pay a £150 release fee.
Because of 2 inches of snow? Seriously? Okay I realise that it doesn't snow like this in the UK that often but when this little snow can stop an entire country it's a pretty tragic enditement of the place.