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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get really fed up with the London based media having a massive panic about a bit of snow.....?

37 replies

nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 22:32

Sorry I have to get this off my chest..... but l just get fed up with the London based media having a massive panic about a few cms of snow. Its laughable, they have reporters standing out in it, solemnly reporting like its a major crisis instead of just winter weather in err.... winter?!!
I live in Scotland and hey there has already been a bit of snow for a few weeks before Christmas......no panic about that. So why should the rest of the country have to put up with ludicrous reports taking up space in the national news when Kent (for example) gets a small amount of snow in winter... personally I would like news coverage of the really important things going on in the rest of the world.....

OP posts:
fryalot · 01/02/2009 22:34

I did a small poll of my own on this very subject!

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 01/02/2009 22:37

Now this is where I'm with KerryMum (sorry ref to different thread) that we do get out knickers in a twist about 1 cm of snow.

And yes, it is the London based media who cause a fuss. But then, we know that's what they do.

eandz · 01/02/2009 22:40

yeah, i grew up in maryland and there we had some horrible blizzards. the blizzard or 93 and 94 were specifically bad (4-6 feet of snow) for over two months straight. blizzard of 98- 5 ft of snow but only for two weeks and then everyday was 4 inches of sleeting/freezing rain.

Original poster
nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 22:43

Oh, that makes me feel a bit better that there is another thread about this.........I am not alone....the world is not mad.....hurrah!!! there are still women in the world who don't panic about a bit of weather..........

OP posts:
AnnakeyRules · 01/02/2009 22:43

yanbu. The whole of Yorkshire closed for a snow day in Dec- not a peep.
Last month, a spider's cough of snow down south- the first 20 mins of the 10 o'clock news was taken up with it.

liath · 01/02/2009 22:52

I nearly threw something at the TV during the news. Un-fucking-believable! I especially liked the reporter saying something like "Who knows what the people of Kent will wake up to tomorrow morning?"

Erm, SNOW possibly??

FFS.

There have been massive ice storms in America, thousands of people left without power and here the media get all hysterical about a few inches of snow. It's pitiful.

chandellina · 01/02/2009 22:58

yeah, i grew up in the northeast U.S. and somehow made it out alive.

galletti · 01/02/2009 22:59

Well, I agree that the media are getting carried away with the snow in the south thing, but i suppose 1) its because it doesnt happen often so its a big novelty value thing, we are wusses (softies),(and really exciting for us mere mortals with kids) and 2) as far as i remember through december I did see reports about the snow up north, mainly through itv news and gmtv. I remember because I have family in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the Midlands.

chandellina · 01/02/2009 22:59

liath - i love that - like what could it be?

goblins dancing on their front lawns

TheFallenMadonna · 01/02/2009 23:02

Things do grind to a halt in snow though. I was one of those stuck on the M11 in 2003 and it was pretty shitty. We don't deal with it well. And that isn't the fault of the media - London-based or otherwise.

ScummyMummy · 01/02/2009 23:06

It probably is partly because Londoners get pathetically excited about proper snow (eg something more than sleet or slush, which is our usual winter lot) and London based journalists aren't any more immune from that than the rest of us. I can see how it would rankle though as I agree it's hardly news for the parts of the UK that are used to snow. Reflects the general over Londoncentricness of the media, I guess.

mamas12 · 01/02/2009 23:07

Don't get me started on the londoncentric media. I once was at a party where a journalist asked well Wales hasn't contributed anything politically at all have they! And when I started to list all the people processes policies e.g. The obvious Lloyd George Aneurin Bevan Welsh Assembly The First Childrens Minister in uk The first to give free travel to pensioners and the first to scrap SATS the list does go on and
She didn't have aclue and tried to tell me that I was lying and anyway whats the name of Ken Livingston child! Er he is only the Mayor of London I knew about his politics but not his childs name she thought she had one over on me !!!

edam · 01/02/2009 23:10

I sympathise. As an exiled Northerner, the thing that makes me VERY grumpy is ds's school shutting at the first flake. It's the home ruddy counties, the most we get is a couple of millimetres and there is NO need at all to shut the ruddy school. Most parents and teachers have huge blinking 4x4s - when I were a lass, people drove over the Pennines when it snowed in minis and Talbot Sunbeams without making an almighty song and dance about it!

Original poster
nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 23:11

The grinding to a halt thing only seems to happen in southern England, which is what makes it all so annoying for the rest of us 'up north' who seem to be able to deal with it and carry on pretty much as normal. I guess its spending priorities. Just tonight the news was reporting that the gritters were out, which seemed a mad thing to have reporter covering, we have gritters going past most nights when its cold....

OP posts:
liath · 01/02/2009 23:12

And since when did a bit of snow become a snow event? For goodness' sake.

LOL @ the dancing goblins, though. That'd give the media something to talk about.

TheFallenMadonna · 01/02/2009 23:16

Really? When I lived in Yorkshire schools closed and transport stopped for sure. In Scotland we carried on a bit longer admittedly...

Original poster
nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 23:27

I'm not saying that schools don't close up here, but its usually got to be bad. They usually close the A9 about two times a year, but its usually only at night, they check the pass, the snow gates go up and then its open again in the morning. I guess things are more geared to keeping roads open, and everyone has more practice in driving when its snowing....
I guess it would be like the media posting reporters around Scotland to report a massive heat wave of say 28 degrees...(which is HOT here!!).... Everyone down south would be saying 'why are they reporting that????'

OP posts:
Kbear · 01/02/2009 23:27

You are just all jealous because London is the centre of the universe and you don't live here, come on be honest.

ChippingIn · 01/02/2009 23:28

LOL yeah, it's snowing, it's pretty (till it turns to mucky slush anyhow) but the amount we get is barely worth a mention, let alone getting more coverage than an alien landing.

It's 4x4 country here too and the school is contemplating closing - FFS. We're talking a couple of cm's!!

Don't get me wrong I like the snow, I'm looking forward to playing in it with the LO's and it looks pretty - but come on.....

mysterymoniker · 01/02/2009 23:32

it is EXCITING

let those of us who don't often get much snow be excited, surely you don't begrudge that?

mamas12 · 01/02/2009 23:37

Not begruding any kind of excitment mystery coz I love the stuff but why it only when it reaches London its an event??

Original poster
nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 23:39

I have no problem with people being excited and enjoying the snow, but does that really warrant twenty minutes of national news coverage, three reporters in the field....etc. etc.....and PANIC WE ARE HAVING A CRISIS from the BBC.....talk about making a drift out of a few cms.....

OP posts:
Original poster
nuttysquirrel · 01/02/2009 23:42

Of course I am going to look a prize idiot when all we can see from 'up ere' is the top of Big Ben sticking out of a snow drift tomorrow morning......

OP posts:
mysterymoniker · 01/02/2009 23:44

heh @ big ben

I'm disappointed there isn't more news, I want it to be like Obama's inauguration or some huge, global crisis that warrants all channels showing nothing but SNOW

IorekByrnison · 01/02/2009 23:57

It was quite bad earlier [sappy southerner emoticon]. Had a very scary drive up the A3 this evening.