Love snow or loathe it, you’d be hard pushed to find many UK residents this week who haven’t found themselves impacted in some way by what are predicted to be the country’s worst blizzards since 1962. Few parts of the country have been unaffected: in central Scotland, an unprecedented red weather warning saw motorists on the M80 trapped in their vehicles overnight. Weather conditions in Lincolnshire and Cambridge led to fatal car accidents. More than 330 schools were closed in Kent alone.

If cold weather is predictable in the British winter, our grumbling reaction to it is even more so. As transport infrastructure and large parts of the public and private sectors grind to a halt, comparisons to the likes of New York, Canada and Scandinavia begin. Why is a country known for its cold weather so unprepared for snow? If these places can carry on as usual through extreme blizzards, why can’t we?

Extreme weather always makes stark the inequalities which are already bubbling away in our society

As explained in an enlightening Twitter thread by Canadian Judith Flanders, the comparison isn’t really that simple or ultimately that relevant. Given our comparatively low levels of extreme weather, and the infrequency with which they arrive, it seems unlikely that there is a case to be made for the military levels of preparedness experienced in the likes of Canada. But when extreme weather has been predicted for several days and weeks before the event, surely there is a happy medium to be found?

While our lack of readiness can probably best be explained by a combination of factors, the hard truth is that almost all of these are ultimately ideological. National politics in recent years has increasingly distanced itself from local interests, eroding communities and their ability to organise around local issues. Austerity-driven budget cuts have savaged local councils, with non-prioritised functions such as road maintenance and planning – which become vital during extreme weather – the first to suffer.

Nationally, too, the government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been hit by some of the largest cuts to operating budgets of any government department, despite the ever-increasing threat of climate change-related extreme weather. In these circumstances it is perhaps little wonder that the government’s 25-year “green plan” announced last month has been met with criticism over its lack of proposals for concrete action.

Play Video 1:19 Red alerts announced as snow causes disruption across UK – video

Beyond the nuts and bolts of local budgets and government department remits, the snow brings with it something of a reckoning about what kind of society we really are. In a country led by a rightwing government characterised by individual interest, is it any surprise that people were able to be left trapped in cars in sub-zero temperatures overnight? Against the backdrop of uncaring and harmful employment and welfare policies which have also endangered people’s lives, why should we expect the state to start caring about us just because it snows?

After all, extreme weather always makes stark the inequalities which are already bubbling away in our society. Politics can’t control the weather, but it certainly frames our response to it: in the context of hollowed-out local government, middle-class areas of high community engagement and loud voice are often prioritised over the deprived communities that are rarely listened to, leaving those who are disproportionately more likely to be single parents, precarious workers or in need of healthcare vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather, while those with more resources are kept safe and sound.

Military called in as Britain struggles to cope with heavy snow Read more

Likewise, while white-collar office employees across the country have enjoyed a few days off or made use of the ability to work from home, those in precarious employment and on zero-hours contracts have battled the elements in fear of losing their jobs or having pay docked. In Scotland, the Better than Zero campaign, which exists to oppose poverty pay and zero-hours contracts, worked tirelessly throughout Wednesday to call out a range of employers who threatened such action or expected workers to brave red weather warnings and advice not to travel in order to make it to service and retail jobs.

Snowstorms, flooding and natural disasters are often framed as freak incidents to be categorised squarely among the abstract. These events, it’s said, highlight the ultimate good of humanity, as communities come together – as they have done over this week – to check on neighbours, open up buildings to the homeless, donate food and water to those stranded. Each of these things may be true, at least in part, but this framing also serves to erase the role of ideology in our response. Insofar as it relates to how society cares for its communities and its citizens, snow is a hot political issue.

• Eve Livingston is a freelance journalist