"Due to snow, England has been cancelled." It was the punch-line of a once-famous cartoon, but time and again it might have been a news headline.

We might not have to deal with the several months of harsh winters every year that have forced Nordic countries to adapt to much more than the inches we experience for a few days. But is our collective memory so short that we have forgotten that those inches cripple this country at about this time every year?

So we escaped in Norfolk and its borders this time, but for the amount of chaos it has caused across the region and the country in the past there should by now have been enough planning in place to ease the paralysis that gripped the Midlands and Wales yesterday and Norfolk not so very long ago.

Instead, every time we get a proper fall it is like an alien race having to deal with heavy blizzards for the very first time. Planes, trains and automobiles come to a standstill at what is, after all, just snow.

The same snow that opens up more travel options in places like Finland, where deeply frozen lakes are declared official motoring routes and planes land on snow-packed runways.

In Canada, schools only close when the snowdrifts are higher than the tallest children. In Estonia only when it's 25C below freezing.

The media doesn't help the British victim mentality when it comes to the weather.

Constant television and radio bulletins on Wednesday as reporters, hearing that snow was forecast, fought to find that first falling flake, purportedly updating the public but actually stabbing fear into the hearts of commuters and joy into schoolchildren.

Authorities are getting better at pre-emptive gritter strikes although still not enough money is being poured into contingency planning.

But it is a sea-change in public and personal attitudes that is needed above anything. Why are we so arrogant to think that, after a night of heavy snow, we will be OK just popping into our cars the same as we would on a bright summer morning?

Anyone who has been on a ski bus down winding slippery mountain roads knows how much difference simple tyre chains make.

It is interesting to note that in autumn 2002, when snow in Sweden arrived one week before its residents were told to change to winter tyres, there was chaos.

What's more, in every snowbound country a sleeping bag, snow boots, shovel, food and a flask are considered car staples. And knowledge of driving in such conditions is essential.

All of which are sadly lacking here.

And our Scandinavian cousins think nothing of abandoning vanity for the warmth of snowsuits and boots yet, despite blizzard forecasts, us Brits still go out in the same outdoor clothes we would in a mild October.

As Billy Connolly said "there's no such thing as bad weather, only wrong clothes". You could say the same about cars and contingency plans.

from the EDP

Are you breaking the law if you drive past those road signs that say "Do Not Pass"?

What do penguins wear for play clothes?

What do you call a bedroom with no bed in it?

What happens if you go on a survival course - and you don't pass?

What if someone died in the living room?

What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

Do Scottish Terriers get Scotch Tape worms?

What if hell really did freeze over? What would we be using instead?