Scottish Transport Minister resigns over weather fiasco

Stewart Stevenson's head rolled today. Well, I said somebody's should, but only time and a thorough public enquiry will tell who is responsible for the pathetic logisitical failures of the last week. The colossal failure of Scotland's government to deal with the effects of the weather is shameful. It seems that wherever the public sector is involved, it's default position is to give up. I reprint an email from my local council in reply to my query as to why the rubbish bins have been ignored for two weeks, and it is so breathtaking in its apathy and equivocation that it is meaningless:

Waste Services are currently trying to reinstate refuse and recycling collections where roads have been treated and access is available.  Please put out your bins, excess bags and recycling boxes on your normal collection day only.  Our aim is to catch-up on collections by the end of next week where possible.   

I'll say it again. If Dr Weasel can drive 14 miles in a saloon car to the ERI and my coalman can get through in a lorry to deliver coal, why not the bin men, who have at most a three mile journey. And why miss the collection for TWO weeks?

Edinburgh was full of calf deep slush for several days running with no clearance scheme to be seen. Buses were just cancelled, with no warning, across the board, leaving thousands of commuters stranded. And of course there were the motorways, with drivers being stranded for hours, some overnight, in their cars. Nobody appeared to be cogniscent of the fact that people were cold, hungry and probably wanting a pee. Stuff happens of course. The weather has been remarkably bad. But that did not stop Mr Stevenson conveniently leaving out the fact in his statement to the Scottish Government that he had been sent a severe weather warning the night before the chaos occurred.

Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative leader, said: "This is not a time for subterfuge and spin – it beggars belief for the SNP to selectively quote from Met Office reports to back up the pretence that Monday's snow was 'unforecasted'." (Scotsman)

Aunty Annabel certainly does not mince her words.

How could it have been handled differently? Well for a start, the minister responsible might have been working full-time to make sure that as much could be done as possible. It seems he did not. Neither did he declare some kind of emergency for, emergency it was. One source of the traffic congestion was a series of heavy vehicles that had blocked the roads. I want to know why it took several hours to clear them and why the police simply closed off escape roads and asked people to stay in their cars. It's easy to sit in a chair and slag everybody off, but I cannot help wondering why nobody appears to have taken charge early on.