The only warning that the authorities had was a brief announcement from the Met. Taken by surprise, all the major services collapsed one by one. Trains ground to a halt as they ploughed into snow drifts, which, in places, reached depths of almost 2 inches. Traffic skidded on the roads as gritting and salting services, with no practice in dealing with such a major catastrophe for at least 2 years, were stretched to the limit. Telephone services were jammed by businessmen ringing up City University to say that they could not make it to urgent appointments with software reliability lecturers because it was impossible to get from Stevenage to London.
Normal life seems to have disappeared for ever.
Today, students sat in classrooms with no lecturers. The few lecturers who didn't get home last night found their classrooms empty, because the students had assumed that lectures would be cancelled and gone out to build snowmen in Northampton Square. The fearsome dictator of the regime, John el Major, appeared on television to rouse the population to new frenzies of resistance. I advise everyone to wrap up warmly. Defence analyst Brig.