THE white stuff is the wrong stuff as far as I am concerned.

Deep and crisp and even more of a nuisance as the years roll by is how I regard snow.

But others do get enjoyment from the frozen ice crystals, I must admit. A mound of snow piled up on the grass verge outside my house as one of my sons cleared the run-in at the weekend attracted the attention of a number of passing young people.

It was rather amusing to see them go out of their way to step up onto the summit and act like human meerkats looking around from the vantage point no more than two feet high.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I cannot remember exactly what I was doing 60 years ago on Monday but, if there was no snow that day, I may have been whizzing round the green outside my house on my red tricycle with the large boot. It was my pride and joy and occupied much of my time.

It was of little moment for me then to know that a princess far away had become a queen on the death of her father.

But it was a historical event for the world and how Princess Elizabeth has conducted herself as Queen Elizabeth II over the last three score years is commendable, I would suggest, whether seen from the viewpoint of a royalist or a republican.

If there were such a thing as a trade union for the Queen’s favourite breed of dog, I would recommend that her corgis should get in touch and press for legal action to be taken on their behalf.

The cause of complaint would be gross misrepresentation resulting in a criminal blow to their reputation.

News that the Prince and Princess of Cambridge – Will and Kate to most people – had become proud owners of a cocker spaniel prompted a survey which claims to reveal that millions of Brits would be only too happy to give the royal wave goodbye to corgis.

More than 2,000 people were asked and “only” 35 per cent voted the corgi as their favoured dog for our future king and queen. That equates to more than a third of the population.

This apparent “public apathy” toward the corgi gave researchers enough reason to discount the breed when they asked a leading dog behaviourist to draw up a shortlist of canines with the breeding, style and temperament to complement the royal couple, and the public were then asked to vote on this.

The Cavalier King Charles spaniel topped the list as “the public’s preferred breed” with just 19 per cent of the vote, closely followed by the cocker spaniel. Filling the next three spots were the Labrador retriever, border collie and daschund.

I’m no fan of corgis but I really feel that this blatant electoral fiddle needs to be rectified. In this case it should really be first past the post…if the contestants can resist the temptation to stop there.