If the offices of The Oxford Times are anything to go by, there were plenty of people showing the sort of spirit county council leader Keith Mitchell alluded to this week in response to complaints about the state of the roads.

Across the county, many defied the treacherous conditions to get to work, particularly in offices and industries that we depend upon.

We happen to believe we are one of those, and the fact that the number of people visiting our websites rockets during such extreme weather events supports us in that.

There has always been bad weather and there have always been plenty of hardy souls prepared to put up with it and continue to go about their business.

Sometimes, that business just needs to be gone about with a bit more care . . . which brings us to a point that struck a number of our staff as they came to work in difficult conditions on Wednesday morning.

While we drove slowly in the icy conditions, we were shocked to find ourselves overtaken by vehicles taking little note of the conditions. On the A34, the fastest vehicles were heavy lorries flying past the general traffic maintaining a steady 30mph-40mph in the inside lane.

Some of our colleagues were overtaken on the A40 by drivers who were more likely to cause an accident than to get anywhere faster.

As this paper goes to press and these words are read, conditions will have undoubtedly worsened. Heavy snow combined with freezing conditions is a recipe for serious accidents.

We salute those who will continue to go about their business but, to the small minority who insist on doing it at their usual speed, we say slow down and let us make sure we can all get there and back in one piece.