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Can Cameron deal with his winter of discontent?
Neil Clark: A prolonged Arctic winter could topple the coalition
Britain crawls towards 2011 with petrol prices at a record high, unemployment rising and inflation catching hold. The trade unions, inspired by “the magnificent student movement”, are threatening nationwide strikes in response to the coalition’s "unprecedented assault" on the welfare state, according to the recently elected Unite leader, Len McCluskey, writing in today’s Guardian. While the Daily Mail counters that the Prime Minister is planning a showdown at Downing Street today with McCluskey and other union leaders .
2011 was always going to be a tough year for David Cameron and his coalition government. But Cameron’s biggest problem - and the one which could make or break his administration - is something no political commentator could possibly have predicted: the weather.
The coldest December for 100 years has brought chaos to the roads. Our biggest airport, Heathrow, is at a virtual standstill, with hundreds of thousands of holiday plans ruined, never mind the cancelled business meetings.
What people are looking for when such severe weather conditions strike is for the state to take control and get things sorted out. But the trouble is that we’ve got a ‘free market’ laissez-faire government that doesn’t believe in the state sorting anything out.
We certainly shouldn’t be expecting much in the way of help from Philip Hammond, the multi-millionaire uber-Thatcherite Transport Minister, who earlier this month called on people to grit their own roads.
Part of the reason why Britain deals so poorly with extreme weather is that Hammond’s ’small government’ ideology dominates.
Our trains, buses, long-distance coaches, airline companies and most of our airports are owned not by the state, but by private companies, with little or no co-ordination between any of them.
As they’re all public limited companies, keeping shareholders satisfied comes before spending money on things like miniature snow ploughs to fit on trains, de-icing equipment for airplanes, or buying enough snow ploughs to clear airport runways. "We have known we were getting this weather for at least a week,” said David Reynolds of the pilots’ union Balpa on Saturday's airport chaos. “There should be no reason why these runways are not cleared. It is appalling“.
The fact - unpalatable as it may be for Thatcherites - is that the more social democratic continental countries, where the state still plays a leading role in transport and infrastructure, cope far better with severe weather conditions than we do.
If this turns out to be Britain’s coldest winter since the ‘Big Freeze’ of 1962/63 - as forecasters predict - it will further expose the fundamental flaws in the neo-liberal model.
With its rejection of state planning and co-ordination, neo-liberalism simply isn’t very good at organising things, or dealing with crises. Just think of how the Bush administration dealt with - or rather didn't deal with - the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
It’s been reported that Britain’s reserves of gas have plummeted to “dangerously low levels” with supplies at Rough, the main store in the North Sea, down by 38 per cent. And the Daily Telegraph has warned that an estimated two million homes, schools and hospitals face fuel rationing over Christmas due to a shortage of supply of heating oil. Energy Minister Charles Hendry concedes that the situation could become “very serious indeed”.
Add to this the large increases in rail fares due in January, the record price of petrol, rocketing food prices, the impact on jobs of the government cuts, McCluskey’s threat of widespread industrial action and we could be in for a winter of discontent which would make the events of 1979 seem like a mere ripple of protest.
Ominously for David Cameron, as he prepared to greet McCluskey and co at Number 10, a new poll suggests that as many as one in five voters believe that students and others have every right to resort to violent protests if politicians break their promises.
If the freezing cold weather continues, the pressure on the coalition will become enormous. If energy supplies run out we will see a national emergency declared - as in January 1974 - with the prospect of restive non-Orange Book Liberal Democrats breaking away from supporting the government and and voting with the Opposition in a Parliamentary vote of no confidence.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has already called on dissident Lib Dems to work with his party “on issues of common interest” and although those overtures were dismissed by the Lib Dem President-elect and leading rebel Tim Farron, the position could be rather different two months from now.
It’s not known what seasonal music will be played in the Cameron household this Christmas. It’s highly unlikely that Let it Snow will be on the list. ·
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It is not at all necessary for the state to be involved in snow removal or de-icing.
Here in Canada, airports are locally (municipally) owned, and provide all their own equipment, which is capable of dealing with most weather situations, in a climate that is normally a lot more severe in the winter than currently being experienced in the UK. This is paid for by passengers in the form of airport fees.
On the roads and highways, snow is removed by municipalities or provincial (regional) governments, and we pay taxes for this purpose.
What is important, is to plan properly. It is a disgrace that the authorities at Heathrow, one of the world's three or four busiest airports, with lots of revenues from passengers and air carriers, have not provided sufficient or adequate equipment to allow ongoing flight operations during the occasional bad (by British standards) snow situation.
Every few months government ministers (both this government and the last) trot out the argument that it isn't worth investing in measures to combat extreme weather conditions. It IS time to consider them, but Scrooge of Whitehall won't be in agreement. For once, I don't blame the Coalition for the weather. But I do think Hammond should be quietly moved back to obscurity so that someone a little more dynamic can have a go at doing the work of a transport minister.
This is so far the coldest december for 120 years, and the third coldest since 1659. Socialists are no more prepared for it than anyone else.
All our politicians and transport companies have been lulled into a false sense of security by continual propaganda about "global warming". Now we are seeing that not even our government can control nature. That's the wake up call.
If we spent only 1% of the EU climate change budget on cold weather precautions, we would not be caught out like this.
Remember too, in Victorian times Britain was the greatest nation on earth, despite their governments. And these days, all UK parties are socialist. And they don't run anything anyway, they've devolved that to Brussels.
Yes, it is possible to function in cold weather, they manage it in Scandinavia, Canada and Russia. But there they expect it every year. Here we don't and are unprepared. Public or private ownership of the transport infrastructure is nothing to do with it.
This is just an opportunist article. If you had any insight beyond left wing bias and the demand that money is inefficiently spent by unqualified politicians and highly paid fat cat Union bosses you'd see the really tricky issue for Cameron here. Climate change - we are to destroy billions of pounds by burning it on the alter of man made climate change worship, at a time of austerity and when the Met office can't even get the weather right 2 months hence. This would be no problem with an unthinking low intelligence left wing supporting electorate, but since right wing voters are far smarter its going to cause trouble for Mr Cameron.
Ecellent article. I wonder how the dying 'Celtic Tiger' would fare in this weather?
We didn't have winters like this when Tony Bliar was running things!
Its all coming home to roost. Elect an 1850 style Tory government and you go on a journey forward to the past. "Oh to be in England now that winters here." Would Ed be up to the task any better?
18th century politics was famously described as
AUTOCRACY TEMPERED BY RIOT.
It would seem that our nostalgia-befuddled Tory-Whig coalition has succeeded in restoring even this aspect of 'Old Corruption'.