Following the closure of most of the UK, tradespeople working in the intense heat have shared the amusing ways they are staying cool.
Construction workers have encountered brutal conditions this week as temperatures smashed the record for the hottest ever June day, but while railways ground to a standstill, more than a thousand schools closed, and office staff logged in from home, those who spend their working days outdoors just rolled up their sleeves and carried on.
Social media exploded with memes from the long-suffering workers who put up with the heat during the day, only to resort to measures such as diving in a children’s paddling pool – or heading to the pub – to cool off.
It comes amid criticism of Britain’s resilience this week after children were allowed to remain at home and parts of the transport system broke down entirely as temperatures topped 36C.
Due to a persistent heat dome over most of Europe, a red weather warning for severe heat was extended into Friday for London and the southeast.
Construction workers across the country deployed popular memes to share how they were faring amidst the high temperatures, with one lip-syncing along to Gemma Collins’ famous departure from the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! jungle.
She famously said: ‘I’m a celebrity. Get me out of here. I’m done. I can’t do any more. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t go through anymore.’
A second post recreated a popular Top Gear scene in which presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May discussed running away after one of their stunts went wrong.
Clarkson, who recently announced he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer last year, asked the others: ‘Suggestions? I mean, running away obviously.’
The poster tagged the video: ‘When it hits 34 degrees on site’.
One bricklayer from Leicester filmed himself returning home from work and diving headfirst into a large swimming pool.
Still wearing his hard hat, shorts, socks, and hi-vis shirt, he was observed diving right into the pool after exiting his home through a rear door.
A second builder, from Birmingham, where temperatures peaked at 33C on Wednesday, took things a step further and dived into a small pool in his back garden while holding a pack of cider. He was captured on camera floating on his back with a can in each hand.
Another worker filled a bin-like container with water and sat in it.
Captioning the video ‘when it’s too hot for work but you remember you’re the boss’, the man sat eating an ice cream with his feet hanging out of the container.
The video echoed a viral image from a heatwave in 2022 in which a group of builders filled a skip with cold water to keep cool in Bury.
As temperatures peaked, some construction workers made their way directly from the construction site to the pub.
Swapping PPE and hi-vis for caps and sunglasses, one group shared footage of them enjoying a cold pint in a beer garden – before poking fun at themselves stumbling home hours later.
This week, portions of Britain slipped into complete closure due to the heat, raising concerns about the country’s deteriorating resilience.
LBC caller James captured the frustration as he praised those soldiering on through the heat as the ‘backbone’ of Britain.
He told presenter Henry Riley of seeing builders working through the heatwave: ‘There were six men and they weren’t all young 20-somethings, some of them were probably as old as 45, stripped down to their shirts, just shorts and boots and their belts.
Now these are our real key workers…..well done construction workers, and then there are the farmers, emergency workers, servicemen and women, bin men and other council workers who do the job, while their office-based colleagues whine about the heat.
At least they carried on working, unlike government workers et cetera, in their air-conditioned offices.
Try working in a school kitchen that has no windows or any other form of ventilation. Two extremely small extractor fans, very high up, that do absolutely nothing, and a kitchen hitting 44°C before the ovens even go on. This is a heat‑stress hazard, a ventilation failure, and a violation of multiple employer duties under UK law.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 