I've just moved our car out of the estate and round to Tesco's car park, from where I will hopefully be able to move it later when Peter needs a lift down to Hamble. It took some initial work with the shovel to get it out of our road (and then again going up the hill), but as I drove along there were small groups of people (mostly men) who were clearing sections of the road. People were getting together - not just clearing their own driveways, but getting the public road clear. And when cars got stuck, two or three people would give them a push.
So is this a failure of local government? Although a lot of people live on our estate, the council don't grit the only road around it that everyone uses. Should we expect our local council to repay us for our taxes by getting the roads clearer, faster, in winter? Or is this The Big Society? People getting together, untrammelled by prescriptive regulation, to really sort out what needs to be done?
I suspect it's not really either of these alternatives. Local and national government are repeatedly unable to deal with extreme events like a couple of inches of snow, and perhaps should be better prepared and respond faster. On the other hand, they can't be everywhere and do everything. And I don't think that people get together because they are feeling empowered by Dave's big idea. I think that generally people tend to look out for each other, and they don't think it's an unusual thing to clear a bit of road - particularly if that means another driver is less likely to slide into your parked car.
I guess we get the the government that we pay for (and nobody wants to pay any more tax); but please don't politicise human goodwill and pretend you've brought about social change.
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