Even here in East Anglia, where we were obviously lucky and probably didn't have it half as bad as in other areas, it still seemed like we were paralysed with fear of going out into the cold.

Schools were closed, workers stayed home, trains were cancelled, the streets were empty of shoppers, airport schedules were in disarray.

I can perfectly understand not wanting to take off in a plane if there is snow on the runway, but for buses and even tube trains not to be running in our capital city was just ridiculous.

There are estimations that as our infrastructure became gridlocked on Monday, the cost to our economy was £1.2 billion in lost trade, and that's money that we can ill-afford to lose in the current economic downturn.

But all this happened because the temperature dipped a couple of degrees below zero.

So why does it happen every time we have a cold snap? Are we so ill-prepared, or was it simply the wrong type of snow that fell from the heavens?

Why, when our continental cousins seem to take far heavier snowfalls in their stride, do we fall to pieces?

I think we have turned into a nation of ninnies. We're frightened to send our children out to play in case they get hit by a snowball or shiver a little. Schools are worried if a pupil slips on ice they will get sued. Drivers are terrified of negotiating even the smallest skid and no-one likes the cold anymore.

It's really time we toughened up. We need to rediscover our backbone and get back a little of the bulldog spirit that saw us battle through the Blitz. Hitler's bombs didn't stop our grandparents from keeping the buses running. The generation that won the war would be truly ashamed of us.