Blaming everyone

discuss…

With the fresh snow that came in from the west last night, new horrors were experienced on the roads today.

In these parts the temperature has yo-yo’d (sp?) between a bracing -2c and a warming 0c (windchill not factored).

My drive home tonight was particularly exciting, but along the road I counted eight abandoned cars, one of which was up to its axles in hedge, having parted company with the road in an abrupt manner.

It’s so shit, how we drive. And we’re so fucking awful because we moan. It’s never our fault, it’s always someone else’s fault. We’ve been living in a blame culture for so long – fuelled by comics such as The Daily Mail – that we are now unable to see our own shortcomings whilst we’re too ready to see those of everyone else. And quick to blame, whilst being unwilling to accept the blame.

The Daily Fail is carrying a story on its online edition that is titled (deep breath) ‘Why weren’t we warned? Met Office under fire as commuters are caught out by fresh snowfalls‘.

Eh?

What?

Why weren’t we warned?

We fucking well were warned – or at least, those of us who could be arsed to watch the weather forecast on Sunday evening were warned. This is a classic piece of tabloid journalism called: make up a story!

It’s also a brilliant example of playing the blame game. It’s someone else’s fault.

I saw on Twitter earlier someone talking about the poor driving conditions in the UK: ‘It’s like living in Finland but without the support mechanisms’.

Really?

No, not really at all, just more blame-gaming.

A few years ago this month we were in Reykjavik. Daylight arrives around 10.30am and dusk falls at 3pm at this time of the year in Iceland.

The daytime temperature in the centre of Reykjavik can be somewhere around an almost tropical -5c, but when we were trekking across the mountainous peaks in the outback the temperature quickly dropped to -18c.

The night temperature can fall anywhere in the range -33c to -20c.

And snow?

Fuck yeah, you haven’t experienced snow until you’ve seen it coming down inside the Arctic circle, as Iceland is.

So what support mechanisms do the Icelandic people get from their government during their harsh winter?

Not too much.

The motorways are ploughed, gritted/salted and kept open, but if you think that the roads in the residential or business areas of town are going to get attended to, you can think again. And not all ‘A’ roads get treated either.

Why?

Because the Icelandic government – like all Scandinavian governments – take the view that it’s up to the people to prepare for winter.

And for the motorist this means a few very simple rules: Keep snowchains in the car, keep drinks in the car, keep food in the car, keep extra clothing in the car, fit winter tyres if you can afford it, but above all… drive appropriately.

And there, with that last condition, they have us Brits over a collective barrell.

We don’t know the meaning of the word ‘appropriately’.

We go through a driving test that doesn’t test our intelligence or common sense and, frankly, it should. The test is shockingly easy, there are no period-based, compulsory retests and there should be, and we are not required to learn simulated winter driving or even required to have night driving lessons, and both of those things should be compulsory too.

And while I’ve got my breath, the very idea that a new driver can pass a test and then nip straight on to a motorway with no requirement to have motorway lessons (or a motorway test) and no period of probation is completely stupid.

And no requirement to have a cycling test? Are we completely and utterly bonkers?

When things go wrong, however, we’re so quick to point the finger. It’s never our fault that we can’t drive properly. It’s always someone else’s fault. But we never blame the system that has created around 25 million really shit road users – internal combustion and pedal-powered.

As far as the winter conditions go I recognise that I’m extremely lucky; HMtQ paid for me to have a two-week winter driving course on a glacier in Norway.

If it wasn’t for that course I would have been involved in a pile-up this evening, when a car came careering down a side road at no more than 10mph and, unable to halt, slid straight across the road in front of me. Travelling too quickly (and yes, 10mph really *is* too quickly in some circumstances), inappropriately for the conditions and not knowing how to stop the car (i.e. relying on the brakes).

Which is kind of ironic really because all of the abandoned cars I mentioned earlier were ditched because they didn’t have sufficient legs to get up the hills.

Sigh.

Not knowing how to drive properly.

I really don’t care that people say ‘Ah, but it’s an unusually severe weather curve we’re going through’.

It’s fucking winter, people.

And we should know how to drive in winter conditions and if we don’t we should be banned from sitting behind the wheel of a car/bus/lorry/van during the winter months.

Stop blaming the weather.

If you can’t control your vehicle properly, you shouldn’t take it on the road.

The trouble is, my hardcore views would not find favour with middle England (aka The  Daily Mail readership).

I wonder if The Daily Mail would let me have some column inches so I can rant at them?