Last Honda Civic out of Saigon...

I was hoping not to have to talk about the snow again, but this current bout of cold weather just isn't getting the message - we've all had quite enough of you, now fuck off. An increasingly irritating aspect of it is the way in which the media contrive to try and make a spell of poor weather into a national crisis. They're aided and abetted in this by the police, councils and public transport providers, all of whom fuel the fear by cancelling services, closing roads and schools and telling motorists not to travel unless it is 'absolutely necessary'. Who decides what is an 'absolutely necessary' journey? The people who hand out such advice certainly aren't giving us any clues. I particularly hate the way in which the media perpetuate the big lie that, outside of a few main routes, every road is impassable. I live in one the areas supposedly worst hit by this weather yet, today, I was able to drive extensively around both main roads, side roads and back roads, through remote villages and hamlets. However, according to my local TV news, the day had been characterised by 'travel chaos' in my area.

Perhaps the most ludicrous report I've seen on TV in the past few days involved the pompous local BBC transport correspondent 'on location' telling us that every road in a neighbouring county was now blocked by snow and/or crashed and abandoned vehicles. Towns were completely cut off and the county was in the grip of panic. "Stay in your homes, don't try to drive anywhere tonight," the buffoon helpfully told everyone. Because, presumably, you'd be attacked by the abominable snowman, or packs of wolves, if you did try to travel by road. "I was in the last car to get safely over Pepperbox Hill," he added, before describing the scenes of horror on the hill. "The road was lined with abandoned cars and lorries which just couldn't make it." I suppose that this was the local TV equivalent of being in the last chopper out of Saigon. After all that, I was amazed not to see reports the next day of the panic stricken citizens of these 'cut off' towns eating each other as the food supplies dwindled. But seriously, this sort of thing really doesn't help/ We aren't in the middle of a crisis - it's just some bad weather. Get a bloody grip!