If you went down the subway recently, you may have seen some people not wearing any trousers. No, they’re not mad…. they’re doing it as a humourous stunt.

No Pants Day is an event where people who use public transport take off their trousers, and say organisers, to act normally. Approximately 3,000 people took part in this year’s event, which started in New York City eight years ago, covering 44 cities in 16 countries.

It may look very amusing, but I just don’t see it catching on in the UK. It’s bad enough watching our hapless Prime Minister Gordon Brown constantly act as if he’s naked (in terms of policy) underneath….

Where has all the grit gone? No, I don’t mean the grit that wass supposed to be used on our roads and pavements which has run out, but the true grit- you know, this thing where people make an effort to go about their daily business, despite the icy weather covering the UK for the last few weeks.

Roads closed, public transport disrupted, fears of power cuts and loss of gas supplies, and even major sporting events that have been either been abandoned or postponed gives a sense that the country seems to be heading towards its usual collective nervous breakdown. At times like this, many commentators routinely whinge and complain that the country can’t cope. We marvel at the fact that other countries tend to do better than us in how they deal with such problems.

I listened to a talk radio show this morning while on my break at work (yes, I did get to work today), and I heard the usual complaints comparing the postponement of a major cup football match due to be played last night to how well the Americans manage to get their sporting events to take place. One of the presenters said, loudly:

“How many American Football matches were postponed due to snow in the last week? The answer is zero!”

Excuse me, not to sound being a party pooper, but I’m beginning to get really fed up of this repetitive whining. Why can’t we accept the fact that there is no such thing as the perfect society? We need to accept that things sometimes do either go wrong or face disruption and just get on with it. Whatever happened to the old saying, Keep Calm and Carry On? It seems that we have lost all sense of perspective.