Editor’s Note: The following is taken from a recent forum post. If a forum post is particularly awesome, we may choose to publish it as a blog post. With England grinding to a halt from a snow storm – which by American standards is not quite a snow storm – a native Brit has strong words to say about it.
From Ben Walker in the forum:
I can’t speak for the rest of the UK, but what annoys me somewhat is the media and their representation of our inability to handle some snow.
I just watched BBC East Midlands. According to them it’s complete and utter chaos, railways, airports and schools are closed. we’re advised to travel when only necessary and there was even some silly report on what to pack into your car! Map, hi-vis vest, spade and even a thermos! I saw a forum post on an international site about how terrible the English are at handling snow…no doubt influenced by our media.
Let it be known. I really dislike our media…I think they’re over-exaggerating drama queens the lot of ‘em. Especially when it comes to snow for some reason.
We’ve got plenty of grit. We shovel our drives, we deal with it. The roads around here really aren’t bad at all. Yes as I look out of my window right now it’s snowing, and tonight it’s supposed to be -2 celcius which means it’s probably going to be worse tomorrow…..but we’ll deal. British stiff-upperlip-edness and all that.
I’m annoyed and I’m ranting…but my point is BBC is international, and anyone worldwide can read their website and assume we’re all rubbish at handling a little snow. I’m asking you not to take them at face value.
….and breathe.
Thanks.
Author Info - Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile with an obsession for Britain that borders on psychosis. He keeps Anglotopia running in his spare time, always dreaming of his next trip to England, wishing he lived there - specifically Dorset - and is always trying to figure out a way to move to England. It will happen one day. Keep up with him on Twitter here. Read more from this author
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.
Here Here. Leeds has had one of the worst snowfalls so far, around 6″ in the last couple of days, and yet here in the office there is not one person who has failed to make it in, people got here by car, on foot and by bus. We’ve all helped digging each other out of the car park and returned the following day to do it all over again, and you know what, it’s all quite fun really (especially when we all gathered in the car park yesterday to build snowmen!)
I find it all quite amusing as an American who lives in Chicago. 6 inches is nothing for us. We’ve had quite a bit of snow so far this year – but we have yet to have a blizzard – which I would characterize at 12 inches or more. Thanks for commenting! Cheers!
Things are rough in the North East, although people are handling it much better and it certainly isn’t chaos. People are only leaving their homes when they have to and when they do need to go out they are being careful, but really this isn’t any different than when there is a major snow storm in the US. The only difference is that here a couple inches is considered a major snow storm because there are precious few plows to go around and the road maintenance crews just aren’t prepared to move the snow.
As far as the English not being able to handle snow, that isn’t quite true. The problem is that at least up here in my area the resources just aren’t there to move the snow. The roads are all fine, the biggest problem is the pavements. Still, this isn’t an issue of people not being able to handle snow its exactly the same thing that happens when it snows in the Southern states of the US and people just aren’t prepared for it. Actually, I think compared to people in the Southern states who freak out when it snows the English are handling the inconvenience much better.
This is true! I’m from Canada hearing about all your dreadful snow, and I did think you were a bunch of babies. However I understand how you feel, being from Southern Ontario, we don’t have horrible winters and we have beautiful beachy summers… yet ignorant people believe I live in a snow shack