THE big freeze has eased a bit, though by midweek the snow might be back. Either way it’s a good moment to consider our response.

Not that of the Government or the councils or any other official bodies – but ours, as individuals and commun-ities.

Apart from the shorter episodes last year, it’s been the first really long spell of snow and cold for almost 20 years.

I remember in the early 1980s having real problems driving back from Hebden Bridge to Colne across the moors, and round them.

I remember following a snow plough in thick falling snow on the A646 from Todmorden to Burnley and only just getting through.

Then there was the time I drove into a drift on the Widdop road and had to be dragged out by a lady in a Land Rover who was fortuitously coming the other way (I was younger and dafter in those days).

But apart from personal tales of heroism or stupidity, what’s gone wrong? Why does no-one clear the snow from the pavement in front of their house any more?

Why don’t shopkeepers clear the snow from their forecourts – or at least clear a path to their door?

Why don’t people in a street get their shovels out and together get it cleared?

Why don’t people even clear the paths to their front doors and their back yards?

Why have so many people forgotten how to drive in snow and ice (or perhaps if they’re under 40 they’ve never learnt?) Why don’t the teachers who seem happy to close their schools go out instead and clear the playgrounds?

All these things used to happen. We seem as a society to have lost our folk memory of how to cope.

Is everyone nowadays too lazy and too selfish to roll up their sleeves and set to?

And yes, if you're asking, our part of Winewall did go out and do its bit to help keep our steep lane open – oldies who remember and younger ones who needed to get to work.

Lancashire County Council were certainly ‘out of their depth’ in spite of the promises of the new administration.

But why didn’t more people make the effort to help themselves and their neighbours?