True grit

Although this week's "snow event" is still happening across large parts of the country, the fact that it no longer affects London has demoted it to second or third place in the national news. The new angle on the story doing the rounds on the TV News is the dwindling stocks of salt and grit employed by councils to keep the roads clear, or at least passable.

Tonight on the BBC News - in a live report from Harrow council's salt warehouse - a solemn reporter warned the nation that, although councils only had supplies currently for the next six days - the Local Government Authority advised the public not to panic.

I'm trying to imagine how likely such a "panic" would be and what it would look like. On hearing the news do the authorities imagine we would suddenly start forming queues of vehicles outside quarries, desperate to fill our boots with a personal supply of rock salt? Assuming we could get through the snow anyway.