IAN HART: It's called snow '“ and yes we have had it before

Don’t get me wrong, and as much as the kids love it, the snow is quite restrictive. But it’s the panic that certain sections of the media seem to spread leading up to the onset of the bad weather that I think is a real cause for concern.

Talk of the ‘Beast from the East’, -15 degree temperatures, travel chaos and widespread food shortages could have possibly driven the fear of goodness-knows-what into any self respecting pensioner.

Yet before the first snowflake fell on Monday, some sections of the national press had embarked on scare stories that would have made horror writer Steven King envious.

Yes, the snow came. And It caused a few issues. But the schools didn’t shut and most people got to work, so it was nothing like what was predicted. It melted almost as quickly as it came, so was the scaremongering, the almost daring of people to go and panic buy, and the talk of record low temperatures all really necessary?

In my opinion, no. Yes, it’s the great British weather and at times it can be severe, and no doubt it may return in some shape or form in the coming days.

But other countries within Europe seem to cope far better than we do and without a frenzy being whipped up that genuinely scares old people and is not pleasant. The people who do it really should know better.

Until the next, time that is...

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