got up on the ladders and used a brush to clear the snow, signal fine then

Read my posts again. Snow won't stay on a dish for very long because of the design and during heavy snow fall no matter of how much you try and remove the snow, it won't restore the signal because its been lost due to atmospheric conditions.

you cant if there is no signal mate

Exactly the same here.

Why is it that a little bit of snow throws this country into chaos like it seems to?

Having just come back from 5 years in Bulgaria, it makes me laugh to see how this country copes with snow. Bulgaria isn't exactly a forward thinking place but one thing they do is cope well with snow.

We generally dont cope with anything. Snow blocks the traffic infrastructure and loses TV signals, too much sun dries the water up and leaves us with hose pipe bans and rain means floods!

lmao, when you put it like that

Do they by any chance get large amounts of it on a regular basis rather than once every two decades?

They do and i see the point you are trying to make
However....
They do not have what you would call snow ploughs, they use tractors to clear the roads and they get a little extra for helping out.
They have nowhere near the funds that local councils have here.

The way the climate is going we could end up getting snow on a regular basis over the next few years... but thats a different debate

I know what you mean and i agree with that (something wrong here agreeing with Kosh )