'We've already used HALF of the grit for the whole winter', warn highway chiefs as the snow continues to fall

Daily Mail
"According to the TaxPayers' Alliance, councils have ordered less road salt than last year - 1.48 million tonnes in 2010/11, compared with just under 1.51 million tonnes in 2009/10. ....The real scandal is that despite Heathrow’s economic and strategic importance to Britain, the Government is virtually powerless to do anything because the Authority is owned by a foreign company.

And it is a scandal that goes back to 2006, when the Labour government stood idly by while a little-known, family-controlled Spanish construction group called Ferrovial was allowed to buy all of Britain’s airports at the knockdown price of £10.3billion. What’s more, the purchase was made despite the firm already having huge debts.

This was just the latest squalid example of a British government selling key parts of this country’s infrastructure to foreign buyers. For example, control of our ports passed from one of the nation’s great historic companies, P&O, into the hands of Dubai World; and most of our power utilities have been sold to continental giants EDF of France and E.ON of Germany.