Large parts of the south-east of England were brought to a halt by snow yesterday with the blizzards expected to wreak further havoc as they move west and north across the country and into Scotland and Wales today. Six million people are supposed to have stayed at home as schools and many offices closed. And, as ever, various industry bodies are wringing their hands saying zillions of pounds were lost in lost output and trade. The Federation of Small Businesses, always quick on the draw with a press release, says Monday 'cost' the nation £1.2bn. But did it really? Shops would obviously have suffered (although we keep reading that nobody's shopping in the recession and Monday is the slowest day anyway) and transport operators will have seen their takings down. Factory output will have been hit in some cases although half the nation's factories, like the whole car industry, are on extended breaks in the downturn anyway. And most people working in the service sector are quite capable of working at home on their computers if needs be. Blatherskite's own highly-dedicated team took this course with Audrey Zazou conducting an in-depth analysis of home shopping channels while Serge Poniatowski was learning how to make a souffle (cooking is his latest enthusiasm as he fancies himself as the new Gordon Ramsay). So all this lost output stuff is mostly tosh. And a whole generation would have discovered or re-discovered the joys of snowballing, sledging (the non-cricketing kind) and making snowmen, thereby cheering them up a bit. More snow please.