Weather: Scots families face week without power

Marooned in a bar with a large log fire and plentiful 
supply of logs. Surrounded by 10ft-high snow drifts. A large gas tank out the back with a warm air central heating. Sociable company and no TV, internet, or travelling salesmen. A library of all the popular authors. I would prefer that to winning the lotto.

– Hector the Miner

Why in this day and age are the power cables not 
underground? These pylons are ancient and rusting. Power 
companies too busy making profits to invest.

– Runway

Unprecedented snow –
nonsense. The council’s failure to keep the roads clear is the main reason for the lack of electricity. This is my fourth day without power.

– Argyll1

Unprecedented … other than the last time.

– Tobias Funke

Year after year, winter after winter, we have scenes of frozen overhead power cables and stories of major outages, not just in Scotland, but all over the UK. For heaven’s sake, bite the bullet, and commit to all future cables going underground!

– Little-Annie

The cost of placing HT lines underground across the nation makes Edinburgh trams cheap. We are talking of a million a mile. The cooling required alone will cost half of that.

– Ancient Wisdom

The root cause of this cold weather is the fact that the north Atlantic Gulf Stream has all but stopped. This is a seemingly permanent condition that will guarantee that future winters will be equally cold in the UK for many decades to come.

– RayG

I am sorry but I have little sympathy with those living on Arran. They know what they’re in for. We went there for a holiday two years ago and it rained heavily for seven days and seven nights. The ferries were cancelled and shops on the front were without power. The locals all said: “That’s Arran for you!”

– McIntosh