Snow talk....

Some thoughts on the snow now over... as seen from the Suffolk coast where we had very little, and almost felt left out of all the fuss.

Quite rightly, people in more northern counties, Wales and Scotland found it amusing and/or irritating that southerners were making such a fuss. They have snow like this every winter.

One reason there was so much about it in the press and media was that the journalists were so relieved to have something other than the gloom of the recession to talk about. (A good example for me to use in my courses on ways to get publicity for your organisation or business .... make use of repetitive news periods with lighter stories).

The snow fell on a weekday and hundreds of schools and nurseries closed. OK - if the snow was very deep and there weren't enough staff to supervise the pupils then it is understandable - after all we don't all live in walking distance of each other now. However a couple of points have stayed in my mind:

- The headteacher interviewed on Radio Four who got up early with his caretaker to clear a safe pathway to school and said something like "Surely children have to learn to cope with the unexpected. Aren't we teaching them to give up too easily?"

- after a TV debate about hospital staff complaining that they were not being paid for the days they didn't make it into work, I heard at least one comment saying "Why should they be paid?" Are those staff the ones who have grown up in an era of schools shutting and giving in? After all, a hospital has to keep open.

As some-one who has always worked freelance I have only ever been paid when I was actually in work. Apparently the police suggest their staff work get to their nearest police station or at home, when possible - but otherwise they don't get paid either. In the past I have had grumbles when, upon hearing me presenting a programme on the radio as usual, workers no longer had the excuse that the roads were too bad to make it in to work, as their bosses knew I had made the journey OK.

Snowmen and sledges: Let's be positive. The kids all had a great time playing in the snow with their parents and friends and now have memories that they will cherish as adults. Even super-cool teenagers were pictured playing happily alongside five year olds...

Now that is good news!