The FT reports that excess winter deaths have risen by 29% over the previous year, a figure that is at once astonishing and entirely predictable.
The Office for National Statistics estimates that there were 31,000 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2012/13, a rise of 29 per cent on the previous year.
Last March was the coldest since 1962, with an average temperature of 2.2°C, and the second coldest since 1910.
The majority of the excess deaths (25,000) occurred among those aged 75 or above.