Maths Lesson for the Chancellor

It shouldn't be surprising we are in as much trouble as we are if our Chancellor of the Exchequer thinks he reduced prices by 2.5% with a 2.5% reduction in VAT. Because that's what I just heard him say on The Andrew Marr Show.

Scary.

£330m, £1bn, £1.2bn, £3.5bn - Any more takers?

These are all the estimates I've heard as to the cost to the economy of today's flurry. This is why you ignore stupid, incalculable figures like this as I was saying before.

What today did provide was a wonderful opportunity to defer economics in favour of 'happinomics'. The weather was forecast many days in advance and we couldn't prepare for it. It was futile to try. It isn't viable to spend the money on preparations for rare weather events like this.

There surely is a method to shut the affected areas down and declare workers holiday. Write it into contracts. Stop the worry, stop the hassle, enjoy the day for once. I can guarantee you the net happiness today (ignoring those protesters) outdid Christmas day by a long stretch and you didn't hear a thing about how much it cost us to shut down then, did you?

The "cost" of snow

Feel free to dismiss any idiotic figures that say the cost of not going to work today because of the snow was such and such (£330m is the figure I heard earlier). It's nonsense because I was at work and anyone who did show up wasn't up to anywhere near as much as we were all too fascinated with the outdoors.

Some days you just have to treat as goners. 1st snow of the winter in the south of England is always going to be one of those days.