04 February,2009 11:59 AM IST | | Agencies
As Britain's capital cleared the soggy remnants of a paralyzing snowstorm that has cost businesses billions of pounds, citizens hit out at authorities for not managing the crisis better.
An estimated 6 million people skipped work on Monday when the largest snowstorm to hit London in 18 years stopped bus and subway services, grounded airliners and hobbled businesses.
The Federation of Small Businesses said the cost to Britain's economy through lost productivity could be as high as 3 billion pounds ($4.3 billion).
"One of the world's biggest economies should not be grinding to a halt," said Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses.
Many Londoners noted that bus services had continued through World War II and paused only for about an hour during the city's 2005 terrorist attack, when four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the transit network.
Some suggested that British workers had set a poor example for the nation's children. Young Britons may become adults who think that "when things get difficult you should just stay at home and have fun," said Margaret Morrissey, of the parenting lobby group Parents Outloud.
Meanwhile, transportation officials, business leaders and local authorities accused one another of failing to prepare for the long-predicted storm that crippled Britain's transport network by dropping more than four inches of snow in London overnight Sunday and another four inches Monday.
Lawmakers who sit on London's assembly said they have called transport officials to a meeting at the capital's City Hall next week to explain whether more could have been done to prevent disruption.
