Frank Field (Letters, 2 March) draws our attention to the rise of destitution in the UK today as children from poor families arrive at school hungry and ill-prepared to learn. The impact of the recent snow and sub-zero temperatures on these children’s lives cannot be underestimated. With their schools closed, they must remain in their unheated homes for days on end without the comfort of a warm classroom or a hot meal. Government austerity and welfare cuts are cold comfort indeed to these poor children.
Cathy Wood
Lichfield, Staffordshire
• Pupils may have trudged through 4in-6in of snow in the 1940s to schools that stayed open whatever the weather (Letters, 1 March), but the reality now is that heroically keeping a school open will inevitably add many more cars to icy, snow-bound roads. Spare a thought for the headteachers making the decision, early enough in the morning to alert radio stations and prevent wasted journeys, and without being on the spot to inspect the site. They will be criticised whichever way they decide.
Mary Smith
Maidstone, Kent
• This beastly blast of wintry weather serves to confirm my long-held assertion that spring, meteorological or otherwise, doesn’t start until the equinox on 21 March.
Annie Bullen
Andover, Hants
• We farm in the Scottish Border hills and have a fair idea about what constitutes bad weather (in a British context). Most older people here can remember the winters of 1947 and 1963 when communities were cut off for weeks. However, comparisons with the past – and with other parts of the world – aren’t appropriate. It’s not the amount of snow that matters, it’s the ability to deal with it. So, we’re told that people in Idaho, or Sweden, or Canada etc, cope better with far more snow. However, they expect to experience severe weather conditions in the winter, so their homes are better insulated, their vehicles are adapted to drive on wintry roads and public authorities are better equipped to deal with the conditions. Obviously, regular experience of severe winter weather gives people a better awareness of the potential problems and how to deal with them.
Also, in these times of budget cuts, it would be ridiculous to expect local authorities to spend large amounts of money on equipment to deal with a situation which will probably only arise every 20 or 30 years. Much of the chaos can be attributed to the far greater number of vehicles using our roads, the majority of which are driven by people with little experience of driving in even moderate amounts of snow. Once one or two drivers fail to cope, it does not take long for traffic to grind to a halt. Some of your rather condescending correspondents – and the grumbling members of the public I’ve listened to on radio and TV – should accept the fact that spells of weather like this will always cause disruption simply because this isn’t northern Idaho or Sweden or Canada. It is therefore perfectly understandable for the forecasters to issue alerts. Simply issuing them must help to reduce the disruption, though there will always be the gung ho idiots who carry on as normal because they have a granny in Finland who deals with far worse.
Lee Davies
Selkirk, Scottish Borders
• Walking around London over the last two days, I have glimpsed a utopia – albeit a rather cold one. The lack of cars on the streets, and the wonderfully slow speed of those that are on the move, has made the streets unusually appealing. They are quiet and safe; kids have quickly reclaimed them for play; people walk on the carriageway where normally they would not dare. This is how the city’s streets should be all year around. It is proof that most of the cars in our cities are wholly unnecessary.
Adam Manolson
London
• How does a person in an electric car caught in snow for hours keep warm? The battery will run down in no time. Petrol and diesel cars can keep warm by running the engine, assuming they have a full tank. Has anyone thought about this?
John Richards
Oxford
• My grandfather, born 1864 in Cambridge, used regularly to skate from Cambridge to Ely (Fens’ residents ready to get their skates on, 28 February): I still have his boots with skates, the latter with vicious, serrated leading edges. I used them in the winter of 1962-63 to play ice hockey on the gravel pits near Oundle School after Mr Harris, the physics master, checked the thickness of the ice with a brace and bit (minimum eight inches at the edge).
Dr Peter Baker
Prestwood, Buckinghamshire
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