South Wales Police say it is "business as usual" for the force

“Jiffy, Navy mates, actually. It is very rare that we get sever weather conditions in this country, East Anglia and Scotland being exceptions.”

“First - this is an EP generated story. They'd have done better to find out how the buses were doing.

Second - our emergency services are not equiped to work in severe weather conditions. They don't have the vehicles and probably not the clothing. Your army mates had the lot. Had they been dumped in Norway without the right equipment and training, they'd not have a clue about how to operate in winter conditions. I can't see us ever training our police to work in any depth of snow.

The comparison of the UK (except Scotland) to the Baltic states every time it snows was boring 30 years ago. It just shows how limited our media are when it comes to bringing us news.”

“Jiffy, Sorry I don't understand your comment at all. Are you saying that servicemen shouldn't be trained?

As for your comments about other countries I quite agree with you, but that isn't the point here. I can understand if we were hit with really Arctic conditions and were caught on the hop, that would be understandable as we would not be prepared. But what happened here is about an inch of snow fell which wouldn't actually stop a Jack Russell and you have the police bravely announcing it would not prevent them doing their job - not should it. Whatever next - are we going to be regaled by the emergency services going to print to say that the light shower experienced during the night will not prevent their brave men from battling on?”

“maxmin - you went for training. Without that, your squadron would have been running around like headless chickens.

Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Germany all know they are going to be getting feet of snow in the winter, They can plan for it. We don't always have to suffer it and therefore don't bother planning, for what is only likely to affect us for a couple of days at the most.”

“I remember skiing in Norway in the mid 60s, such nice people, even though we didn't speak each other's language we somehow got on well. Their trains ran to time despite feet of snow.
Working on repairing a ships RADAR or steering gear in Swansea about 1969, the only time I was welcomed was by Norwegians, normally it was 'your equipment has failed again', well no it wasn't it was theirs!”

“Why would it be anything else? About an inch of snow fell, are you seriously saying that should disrupt the police in the performance of their duties? Every January my squadron would go to Norway for Arctic warfare training, they seem to manage with several feet of snow, down here you get less white stuff than sugar on a doughnut and everyone goes around like they're Scott of the Antarctic!”

“siarad2 a few people i knew walked into work from Porthcawl along the beach what winter. I don't think you'd ever see that happen today, especially with the youngsters who'd be more worried about how the cold weather might effect their skin, or god forbid their hair being blow out of place!”

“I remember that winter & walked from the Twelve Knights, where I overnighted, to Neath Abbey, due to the M4 not being cleared, I pushed the snow plough back to the depot!
Funny how the two oldies, me & the MD of Borg Warner, walked while all the youngsters stayed behind.
The police complained we'd dangerously & illegally walked on a closed motorway, talk about jobs-worths!”

“Not quite, besides that was over 30 years ago. I always use to volunteer to pull on a chain-block or pull-lift back then, i saw it as an extra form of exercise. My 2 days a week in the gym and a swim are quite enough these days. Oh and the odd bike ride in France now and again”

“... and you've been shovelling ever since...”