Britain bracing for ferocious "Polar plunge" next week - This winter "could be the worst for decades"

Snow in Sheffield on December 1, 2010.
(image Wikipedia)

Britain is braced for a ferocious 'Polar plunge' as cold winter freeze takes hold. The worst worst weather is expected to hit during the middle of next week, when overnight temperatures are expected to dive to -10C with windchill in the North while the South will shiver in lows of -5C.

But this is only the beginning of what forecasters expect to be "the worst winter big freeze for decades":

“An exceptionally prolonged period of widespread cold is highly likely to develop throughout this winter and last into next spring.
“It will be accompanied by snow drifts of several feet and long-lasting snow accumulations on a widespread scale.
“This period of snow and cold is likely to result in an incomparable scenario to anything we have experienced in modern times.

James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather


“The focal point at this stage seems to be January, when we could see widespread heavy snow and below-average temperatures.
“This could stretch out for weeks, meaning we could be looking at the worst winter big freeze for decades.”

Jonathan Powell, forecaster for Vantage Weather Services


PS

In case the coming winter actually turns out to be the worst in decades, the AGW high priests will of course again explain this as a result of global warming.

Cameron defends arms sales to Arab states

David Cameron has reacted  angrily to mounting criticism over his arms export mission to the Middle East declaring that Britain has "nothing to be ashamed of for selling weapons to Arab leaders":

‘We have probably the toughest set of export rules probably anywhere in the world. It is obviously difficult to get it right on every occasion.’
An angry Mr Cameron told a journalist: ‘I simply don’t understand how you can’t understand that democracies have a right to defend themselves.

It would be interesting to hear Cameron´s definition of a democracy.

Fred Kaplan, writing in Slate, notes one case where Cameron definitely did not "get it right":

Britain sold Libya more than $6 million in ammunition including riot-control ammo, in the third quarter of 2010 alone—a chapter in shame that Prime Minister David Cameron (who recently flew to Egypt to strike a relationship with the nascent regime there) might wish to rectify.