Cold blast of reality for MP’s nostalgic journey

DAVID Blunkett wrote “A few flakes of snow and we start taking the easy way out” (Yorkshire Post, January 24), rapping the knuckles of snow-phobic teachers in his entertaining account of an attempted rail journey from Barnsley to Sheffield on a freezing evening 30 years ago.

He could retrace his steps today: the line is open, the points protected from freezing by technology, but take off the rose-tinted specs and the problems of some snow-hit rural areas come into focus.

Many of the local schools we walked to through deep snow in 1963 are long gone. So are the trains that ploughed through the drifts to get us there when roads were impassable.

At some schools today most children arrive after a long bus journey along difficult, single-track roads that in recent days have become treacherous ice-rinks. Drivers have sole charge of their passengers (despite the supervision ratios councils insist on for other school trips) often starting out before dawn to reach their first pick-up point.

Caretakers struggle against the clock to clear paths and playgrounds that are the happy hunting-ground for ambulance-chasers.

In such situations, head teachers need to make a clear decision very early: no one appreciates indecisiveness! With hindsight some of their decisions may appear short-sighted, but they are not alone.

Who decided to close hundreds of rural schools and thousands of miles of railway lines in the name of efficiency? Who decided to allow solicitors to advertise, spawning those odious “no win, no fee” adverts? Politicians, Mr Blunkett!