Wow.

Okay, for those who ARE interested in doing what generations of people did in the past without injury or indeed fuss, there are guidelines on directgov.uk on clearing snow.

It is not, as some people seem to think, a Herculean task to clear a few metres of snow. You don't even need to clear the whole path, just the width of, for example, a push chair or buggy. It doesn't take long and it won't kill you. It's actually quite good exercise. For the record, I'm a 42 year-old woman with average fitness and a slightly dodgy back. I do it every year with a garden shovel and some bags of salt from Sainsburys.

It's a bit of shovelling, that's all.