Cold comfort

How the rest of Europe must roll about laughing every time it snows in Britain. If we were one of the United Arab Emirates or bordered Somalia then a fall of snow on the second of February might just be a big story, dominating the TV news but we are not. We are an island in the North Sea off the coast of Northern Europe where it can, and often does, snow.

While every other country in the EU accepts winter and snow as part of life and just gets on with it a couple of inches in Britain and the nation is paralysed with schools closed, roads impassable, public transport disrupted, trains grinding to a halt and planes grounded.

Anyone any idea as to why most of Europe, and indeed North America, can take blizzards in their stride and carry on as if nothing has happened and we get a light dusting of snow, which is immediately dubbed Arctic conditions, and the whole place slithers to a halt?

It is currently -38 deg C in the Arctic by the way - which is real Arctic conditions.