Winter worries

As we observe the distinct lack of emails on a day when parts of the country are seeing the first real snow for 18 years, I noticed some interesting comments on the BBC website. Robert Penn, co-author of The Wrong Kind of Snow: The Complete Daily Companion to the British Weather notes that there is not much “Dunkirk spirit” and Steve Hopwood adds “We seem to be getting worse at coping”. This news has overshadowed a report out today about the children of Britain, which emphasises the changing nature of the media agenda. So why do we crumble amidst extreme conditions? Perhaps we are used to having it easy – and that could easily apply to another type of crunch we’re feeling at the moment.