Just like the winter of 1814

"An operation to rescue 500 people from vehicles stranded in snow on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall was tonight under way as winter weather hit the west of Britain hardest."
--Guardian Staff

Harsh winters are rare on this island, warmed as it is by Atlantic currents. So blizzards always take Britain by surprise. In 1814, people were dying on the roads because of hitherto unknown levels of snow. Postboys, who were regularly threatened with a month's hard labour in prison if they were caught loitering in their deliveries, froze to death on their horses.

In 1814, the Age of Reform and the first evangelical awakening were already underway. The winter stopped people, their fading warmth pulling them towards each other to discuss their connections more earnestly.

Disasters are coming. All disasters have moral consequences beyond their physical ones. Disasters can be excuses to crack down on terror, reasons to police the roads, inspiration to care for the weakest, excuses to relax one's expectations of a hard work ethic. Hurricanes are heading south, and snow is heading north. Good time to keep a finger to the wind.

• Over time, tax-cutting can also harm the rich, in today's IHT, by Robert H. Frank, New York Times reporter, on why big houses don't make the rich happier, and how public concerns like E Coli kill rich as well as poor.
  
• Rich and Poor Alike, a sermon by Rev. Mary Haddad, St Bartholomew's, New York