EARLIER this week we were being told to prepare for some pretty ‘bad weather’ but I did sense it mattered more because central London got some snow.

As a hardened northern soul who has seen some pretty bad weather in his time I do think there is widespread panic only when the south gets some snow.

The rest of the time we maybe get a mention at the bottom of page two. Unless you happen to be the Daily Express news staff who are expecting two months of sub-zero arctic conditions or a heatwave every week. At least this time they finally got something right.

The rolling news coverage of ‘snowmageddon’ and wall-to-wall coverage of the oncoming apocalypse was a little too much.

Food did not run out, the internet did not go down and the world did not end.

The petrol stations were all open and if you couldn’t drive you could walk.

In fact I take it back, our weather is nothing compared to what other nations go through.

The problem we have in my home town in Blackburn is those damned hills.

Yes, those hills and slight gradients can make a simple two-minute drive into the most, wait for it and I must use this word… 'treacherous’ journey.

If we did not have these hills I don’t think we would have a problem at all.

Some folk seemed to believe that their vehicle had super powers and would climb anything.

As a neutral this is actually good to watch. Especially blokes in their twenties who don’t take failure too well.

We also of course had the strange people who seem to think they don’t need to slow down when it snows. In fact the idea is that if one goes faster one is less likely to get stuck or skid off the road.

And then I saw one fellow in shorts on Wednesday dropping his kids off at school. I think he was Eastern European.

At this point I felt ashamed at having worn two pairs of pants and three jumpers.

I also felt ashamed to be British.

Those folk on the M62 made me proud though helping the stranding motorists.

Scotland has got the brunt of the nasty weather but this was after a week when, let’s be honest, the weather was, and some might well disagree, not that bad as we thought. It could well have been worse.

But those Scots handled it pretty well and they still managed to come out the other side unscathed. They are hardcore not like the rest of us.