Oh the British winter

A lot of people in the UK seem to be super­sti­tious, par­tic­u­larly in winter. Many people think for example, that leav­ing christ­mas dec­or­a­tion up after the 6^th of Janu­ary causes bad luck. Oth­ers think that grit­ting your own drive or the pave­ment out­side your house or clear­ing it of snow will cause people to sue you if they slip and fall des­pite your efforts. Well, both of these pop­u­lar beliefs are actu­ally myths, I’m afraid.

Fair enough, this coun­try isn’t used to a bit of snow in the winter and that´s why people react scared and para­lyzed — I give you that. But come on, stop act­ing like chil­dren and take some respons­ib­il­ity. Stop com­plain­ing that the coun­cil doesn’t grit your pave­ment and that eld­erly people are pil­ing up on the street corners as they slip on the ice and fall on their face. People don’t need to be “trapped in their homes”, this is not the Ant­arc­tic. Take a god­damn shovel and grit your own pavement!

But … but … haven’t you watched TV? There´s a national short­age of grit. Don’t give me this bull­shit! If you don’t have salt for grit­ting (which is bad for the envir­on­ment any­way) use some­thing else. Gravel, sand, saw­dust, or even wood chips are bet­ter than no grit. Use your ima­gin­a­tion. This is an island, there´s plenty of sand all around. And no, nobody will hold you liable when they slip on your drive unless you act grossly neg­li­gent ie. when your grit­ting efforts make things worse than they were before. If for example you had the bril­liant idea to pour hot water over the ice, you’d clearly be an idiot and deserved to be sued. In most coun­tries you’re leg­ally obliged to free the pave­ment out­side your house from ice and snow and you’re liable for any acci­dent that hap­pens if you DON’T. In this coun­try how­ever, you enjoy the free­dom of look­ing after your neigh­bours vol­un­tar­ily. So stop com­plain­ing about the coun­cil and do it your­self. It shouldn’t be the law, it should be com­mon sense.

Oh and hav­ing some fairy lights up on the 7^th doesn’t kill any­one either.

Myth bus­ted. Now enjoy your snow.