Three minutes after 10, good morning.

And yeah, it's cold, isn't it?

And it's cold in a way that is newsworthy.

That's not exceptional.

That's not extraordinary.

The weather is always newsworthy.

There are weather reports attached to almost every news bulletin you've ever encountered.

But it's moved beyond mere information and become instead a social issue.

I think sometimes that we don't notice the immensity of an event because it has crept up upon us incrementally.

I'm not expecting any prizes for this observation, by the way.

It is why the figure of speech boilingboiling a frog exists or by degrees.

But just pause for a minute and step back from the fray for a moment

and reflect upon the fact that we are currently living in a country

in the 22nd year of the 21st century after well i mean

decades of wealth decades of growth with wobbles and recessions in between but pretty much going

back to the industrial revolution we have been a quote world leading economy-leading economy, end quotes. And this isn't

unique to the UK, by the way. It's just where we happen to live. And such is the structure

of our systems that huge numbers of people in this country at this time are freezing cold and don't have the heating on.

So this is why I want you just to step back for a minute, because think about the achievement

of central heating being so widespread and available in this country.

That it is within living memory that that was not something you would take for granted.

And of course some people don't have central heating.

...