National Snow Day

Remember our analysis of federalism in time of crisis? Well, what of a unitary government stopped cold -- by four inches of snow.

The CBC (part of the British commonwealth) coverage pokes fun here of the worst snowstorm in 18 years in that shut London down on Monday.

"There are no buses running in the entire city, while 10 out of the 11 Underground lines are shut down.

"London Mayor Boris Johnson said the buses were pulled from service because the vehicles would become a "lethal weapon" if they skidded.

The city's ambulance services have said they will only respond in life-threatening cases."

The Cold War is over, but reading this report, Vladimir Putin would probably claim victory over the blocked-in Brits.

"We're not in Russia here," said Guy Pitt, a Transport for London spokesman. "We don't have an infrastructure built for constant snow."

Mayor Johnson said many of the city's authorities simply didn't have enough snow plows to deal with the downfall. In the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the local authority said it had no plows and only two machines to salt roads.

Johnson, who commutes by bicycle, said even he'd suffered a wobble on the glassy stretches of roads around the capital.

Lawmakers who sit on London's assembly said they have called transport officials to a meeting at the capital's City Hall next week to explain whether more could have been done to prevent disruption.

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said few people raised in the freezing British winters of the 1960s and 1970s could understand the failure to prepare, despite days of warning that heavy snow was likely.

"It was hardly a surprise when we pulled back the curtains yesterday morning," Frost told The Associated Press. "But, I think that there is a complacency because we're told that we'll have steadily rising temperatures as a result of climate change."

"Those in authority need to be more open to the fact that we'll still get heavy snow falls, too," he said.

Many Londoners noted that bus services had continued through World War II and paused only for about an hour during the city's 2005 terrorist attack, when four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the transit network.

The news of a day off wasn't being greeted entirely with gloom, she said, as children who would otherwise be in school flocked to the parks to play in the snow.

"They haven't really had that opportunity," Duarte said. "In general, there's quite a good feeling."

(From the CBC & AP)