I don't understand the snow whingers. You know the ones: 'ooooh, they have snow every day in Finland and their economy doesn't grind to a halt, but a little flurry here and it's the end of the world, and ooooh, look, a fifth of the workforce were off on Monday, and every last one of them a skiver, and oooh, look at those schoolchildren, we used to go to school through tunnels of snow and it taught us grace under fire or something along those lines and I've got work to do, I can't be looking after my own children when I pay good money for someone else to do it and who cares if they might get stuck in a snowdrift.'

I don't agree that it's the worst snow in over 20 years, because the snow in 91ish was much worse in Birmingham - and yes, I did get to work then and Monday. But whatever way you look at it, it was a bit special. It's unlikely that children south of the Pennines will have seen snow like it in their lives (unless they've been abroad). I felt quite disappointed that Little Un didn't get the time off school, even though I'd have had to take him to work. Are a few days off school really such a bad thing?

I'm not an advocate of skiving. It really pisses me off when people take time off in good weather just because they can't be arsed and it's not often sunny. Sun doesn't cause road accidents or school closures. But snow makes things really impractical.

The whingers use the economy as an excuse, telling us how much money it has cost the UK to lose all those working days. Kind of like worrying about toddlers pissing in the sea I should think. How much would it cost to make sure we could all get to work in the snow? I can imagine the way these people would have been whinging for the last 8 years at least - 'look at the money we're wasting on snow precautions when we've not had significant snowfall for ten years.'

Thing is, in countries where there's more snow but not many more precautions taken (I'm thinking Scotland here), people do get to work and school better than in London and the south. They're used to driving in snow. I was used to it. I hate driving in snow here (midlands). Not because I lack confidence (I've done Rosslyn Glen in snow in a 1.2 Nova, to the amazement of the hospital porters), but because other drivers here are completely crap and a danger to me. But they'll never learn because they'll never have sufficient opportunity.

There's something magical about snow. It's not like we get it all the time any more. No one's ever going to die thinking 'I really wish I'd gone to work that day I spent playing snowballs with my kids'. So next time there's a Big Snow in the South, let's accept we're nesh, admit defeat gracefully, sod the economy and stay at home making snowmen!