Human nature, from one extreme to another, has been on display of late. Extreme weather seems to bring out extremes in behaviour.

Take the ’snowstorm in a teacup’ which did but didn’t threaten Gordon Brown’s position. For seven hours, the Cabinet minutely examined their fingernails before deciding – yet again – that the brave/cowardly/stupid/idiotic attempt by Hoon and Hewitt was to be ignored. A few used it to extract concessions about getting more attention at Cabinet than Ed Balls (what does the Prime Minister see in that horrid, awful man!?) and Gordon not to make any more jokes about  Eton. Wish they had told him not to make any more jokes full stop. But then the whole affair turned out to be a joke.

If this was all bravado, then driving habits are much more dangerous, I suppose. We have had a lot of debate about availability of grit. Coming from the salt town of Northwich, I have brine running through my veins (medically disadvantageous, I am sure). I know Salt Union in Winsford is operating at capacity, but councils are now running out. I have some sympathy with Councils since I doubt any stockpile could have withstood the latest bout of extreme weather. Yet I still hear anecdotal tales of some stockpiles being half-empty in early December, so I wonder whether emergency planning was adequate.

The end result is that the country semi-grinds to a halt. Side roads become ice rinks, and anything ungritted and sloping becomes lethal. So a small plea. If you are driving from an ungritted side road on to a gritted road at a T-junction or roundabout – please drive towards the junction very slowly and brake carefully – because it is where  changes in road surface, speed and direction occur that things are at their most lethal. I have seen a number of cars skate over the crossroads between Norfolk Avenue and Holmefield Avenue because they haven’t taken that into account. They have been lucky nothing was coming the other way.

At times like this, we realise that there is no protection from reality, no matter how much we expect of Government. All the health and safety legislation in the world cannot protect a child who naively tries to walk across a frozen lake when the ice is not thick enough. Risk and hazard perception is something we all need to learn. It might seem common sense to most of us not to walk across frozen lakes, but sadly the news tells us otherwise.