The Nationalisation of Salt

I note that Northamptonshire has been forced by the Government to cancel an order for 4,000 tonnes of road salt,  so the Government can send it somewhere that the need is greater.
Northants, a fine county in the East Midlands, has several major towns and a lot of rural roads.  The population is 650,000.  Being resolute folk, I am sure they will struggle around the place on ungritted roads, although the ditches around Northampton, Daventry and Kettering will no doubt gradually fill with cars as they skid off.
I wonder where could be more in need?  Counties that haven't bothered to order in grit, presumably.  Sadly the people of Northamptonshire will be unable to register a vote in those other counties to protest at the theft of their grit.
Meanwhile on the radio I heard a member of a local government association explaining that they hadn't ordered enough grit in because they hadn't been warned it was going to be cold.  Which begs two questions.  First of which is - didn't they know winter was coming?  And the second - which is like unto it - did the Met Office's Gaia-inspired prophecy of a mild winter, encouraged by the need to big up Global Warming at all times, con the local authorities of our land into thinking it would never freeze again?

In the mean time, good luck to the people of Corby, Wellingborough and Yelvertoft.  I am sure you will all be pleased, as you skid across your roads, to know that everyone's nicely gritted in Peckham and Tower Hamlets.