But they're not over here because you don't actually NEED them. Whatever did we do in years gone by when there were no such thing as winter tyres, and tyres (and cars, for that matter) were in general much worse? Oh yeah, we drove to the conditions and survived.
You'll be telling me that we NEED all these stability and traction control devices in cars simply because the law says we have to have them next.
Firstly Scotland is colder than south of England. It gets very cold here quite frequently. It's been icy 2 days this week already. I NEED them. 2 years ago range rovers, xc90's etc etc where getting stuck. -10c was average temps at night. If I didn't have winter tyres I wouldn't have got paid and my bills wouldn't have been paid.
You don't NEED same tyres on the front and back but you agree it's safer. When it snowed on in March this year I has my summers back on. I didn't crash but it took me 3.5 hours to do 60milss. It was butt clenching and and the tyres where having a hard time. If I had winter tyres it would have been no biggy.
If you don't live somewhere cold and you haven't tried winter tyres maybe you shouldnt dish out advice on them.