"I have been monitoring TV and radio coverage, watching travellers complain about a lack of information in airports and stranded drivers blaming "the authorities" and even opposition MPs criticising the government, particularly transport minister Philip Hammond.

Complainants routinely point to Sweden and Finland coping while Britain, as always, does not. (The same is being said here in Ireland). These knee-jerk criticisms are surely beside the point.

Britain and Ireland could hardly devote the resources in terms of snow-clearing equipment, salt, grit and airport runway heating on the basis of occasional and very short bouts of snow and ice.

The clue is in the phrase "extreme weather". Worse, of course, is the way drivers complain without having taken precautions themselves. How many people have snow chains, for example? Are "the authorities" supposed to supply them?

I'm afraid this bellyaching is part of the modern British culture of people blaming the state for every reverse and refusing to take personal responsibility."

Newspapers join the blame culture by lashing out blindly over snow (The Guardian)