The worst thing about the global warming scare is not the bad predictions, after all the weather and climate are different and Britain will always have a hard to predict weather pattern.  And there is a widespread scientific conviction that there is warming due to human activity, so taking pot shots at the science is fun but it does make the warming-pragmatists look madder than the warming-true-believers, which is precisely the reverse of reality.

The real problem is that we are going to see a massive spike in heating costs, something that won’t affect most Labour or Tory MPs and will only marginally affect the sort of people who become constituency party chairmen or councillors (particularly in the almost exclusively public sector middle class Labour Party).  It is, however, going to lead to the needless death of pensioners.  It’s also going to lead to a slowing in economic growth, and so a stunting of living standards among the most vulnerable.

Like the BT fiasco at Suffolk County Council the worst policy mistakes are when there is a cross party consensus, particularly when there are interest groups in the mix, not when there is a jolly party knock about.

The gritting routes have now been published.  To find them follow these instructions.

1.  Go here:

http://suffolk.elgin.gov.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=streetworks.streetworksMap&layers=streetworks

2.  Go to the “Zoom To” box

3.  Choose Postcode

4.  Enter your full postcode

5.  On the left hand side scroll down until you get the Highway Network folder and then choose the salting routes box

If you are on a purple route you are priority 1 and you’ll have your road (not pavement) gritted reasonably frequently.  If you’re on a green route you’ll be gritted quite infrequently, but still gritted.  If you have no route (like I do) then there will be no gritting.  None.

It seems that there was a phenomenally poor prediction and calculation of the rock salt needed. While I could get out Hayek and talk about how this failure is bound to happen, why not look at something less controversial, how rubbish the Met Office proved to be?

They are continually erring on the warm side of any medium term predictions and while this is merely annoying when they predict a “barbecue summer”, people are dying because of their poor predictions this month.  Piers Corbyn, left of Labour activist and brother of ultra left wing MP Jeremy Corbyn, says that he has predicted the cold snap with far greater accuracy far in advance.

His contention is that the Met Office didn’t just believe in global warming, they really, really believed it and were prepared to predict on the basis of it.  And that’s why people are dying on the roads and we don’t know whether we’ll have to ration gas through the cold snap.

This is not to say that global warming is nonsense.  As the BBC and the government (or did I repeat myself?) have been telling us for the last week the weather is not the same as the climate.  A pity the Met Office seems to have forgotten.

(Just to cheer you all up, Piers Corbyn reckons that the cold snap will prove more than a snap and despite a couple of warm spells go well into February.)

I’ve just picked up this piece in the Star talking about fury at the ungritted paths. One of the more interesting comments at the bottom of the article was this:

…How about … clearing the path for yourself? No if somebody slips on the path you have cleared you will be sued. Society is caving in on itself! Compensation culture and a lack of community spirit are destroying Britain.

Why are some through routes gritted and others aren’t?

Will our road be treated?

When you phone up to warn of impending accidents and told that the road will be gritted, why isn’t it?

I think we’ve got to be honest and say that people have been very confused as to the response of Ipswich council on the gritters.  But the problem is not that there isn’t a gritter up every street, it’s just we don’t know where the gritters are.

The council needs to tell people before hand whether or not there road will be gritted.  This will mean that people can prepare, by for example keeping rock salt.  If they want to elect someone who’s going to tax them till the pips squeak but put a gritter up every path and side road (and run out of rock salt within three days) then they can vote Labour.  That’s what a democracy is.

It’s the not knowing that’s really infuriating.   Both on the Ipswich Council site and the Highways department there’s no update or advice.  There’s no explanations as to why no pavements are treated, even busy ones such as those leading down from Belstead Road and into Burrell Road.  There’s a perception that gritting is much less than in previous years.

One of the most troubling worries is that council officials (I know that there is a taboo on publicly criticising council officials, but it needs to be done) will come down on people like a ton of bricks if they clear the road or pavement.  This perception doesn’t come about by accident.

So we need to be informed of whether or not the roads and pavements we use will be gritted.  We should be kept informed through the cold period as to what’s going on. And we need to be told clearly that we will not be punished for helping to maintain the safety of our streets.

https://www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/xforms_form.php?formID=152

As Belstead Avenue is used as a through road by drivers who dislike the incline on Luther Road this is not acceptable. I’ve seen two near accidents in the last few days.

The fact that Belstead Avenue is slightly cut off means that the gritter lorries don’t come by and the road is an ice rink, at least the two thirds that is not linking Luther Road and the Maidenhall Estate.

What was dispiriting was talking to a couple of the neighbours, public spirited people who have cleared their drives and helped their neighbours.  When we were moaning about the lack of grit on the steep and sharp downhill bend that is Belstead Avenue.  I suggested that we get some salt and put it on the road.  ”The council won’t let us do that on their road” was the reply.

Whether or not it’s true (and to my shame I don’t know whether that’s the case) it just goes to show what the health and safety nonsense is doing to communities up and down the country.  We all moan about it but still it seems to pile on, and that’s before we get to the snow.  It doesn’t seem to matter who’s in charge the health and safety rules still come, and worse there’s a paralysis that comes to any community organisation.

This week also saw me having to return to Ipswich on Monday and losing a day’s holiday.  On Thursday both me and my wife caught the 9.30 train and arrived at 1.15 AM, two hours late.  In the last two weeks I have been late more often than I’ve been on time, needless to say it’s starting to be noticed.  Thank God that I’m going to be able to extensively work from home next year.

At least in Ipswich we can vote out the minister responsible for railways.