Only in Britain

Whenever the weather's a little snowy we always hear that complaint. "Every year it catches us by surprise. Only in Britain".

Well, I've come to the conclusion that's not true. For starters there's the case of poor Hnaef. 48 hours stuck in Munich airport, so long he had to buy in emergency pairs of underpants. Although, from his description of the items, I think he may have gone mad from snow-blindness and bought himself lederhosen instead. And elsewhere even the hyper-efficient Germans have had to stop running trains. Although I don't know whether that's because of the snow, or because they've stopped burning Euros to power them.

And then we have the Belgians. 400 miles of traffic jams. Is it only me that thinks they don't have that much road even in the summer? It's probably some con to get an EU grant for more grit. And 10,000 buses stranded in Normandy and Brittany. Not that there will be any fewer passengers, I dare say the drivers merely sneer as they go past at the best of times. And they run their buses on dodgy Calvados, which they get EU grants for. Which we pay for. Out of the tax that the ConDem government levies on road salt and anti-freeze.  And what about those Qataris? Six inches of snow and I reckon they'd grind to a standstill. Never prepared for snow, the Qataris.

This has been brought to you by "Abroad is bloody and foreigners are fiends". A subsidiary of the English media's reaction to its World Cup disappointment.