Good morning. It’s cold – even colder in parts of the country this morning than yesterday - and in some places, it’s been snowing. These facts alone were enough to cause the UK to enter a familiar state of mild crisis. But while the real dangers of freezing temperatures were made appallingly clear by the dreadful news that three boys have died after they fell into an icy lake in Solihull on Sunday, that was a thankfully isolated incident. For the most part, the country slowed but did not come to a standstill.
Many of the most serious issues that reared up as temperatures dropped – like the news that English hospitals are making emergency plans in case of power loss – were more to do with the energy crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than an innate inability to cope with bad weather. That didn’t stop everyone from thinking of themselves as heroic Arctic explorers for getting to the shops, though.
