The National:

TOP comic John Oliver has paid tribute to Scotland’s “world class” snow-plough names.

The Emmy-award winning late night chat show host's suprise compliment for our gritters came as he hit out at the city of Syracuse for wasting an opportunity for some top-class punning.

After a week-long contest, with more than 2000 people taking part, the city in New York state went with names including Blizzard Beater, Golden Snowball, Jocko, Lake Effect Crusher, and Winged Warrior.

Speaking on the Bugle podcast, the host of HBO's Last Week Tonight, said the names were "fine" and "servicable". 

“Absolutely no real complaints, or at least they seemed fine until I started looking at what Scotland has been doing with its snowplough names because it puts those efforts to shame,” he said.

“Grit Expectations, Gritallica, Gritney Spears, Penelope Gritstop, Sir Grits-a-lot, Gritty Gritty Bang Bang. Those are just the grit based names,” Oliver added.

“That's just one subsection of excellence. There's also - these are real - Hans Snowlo, I want to Break Freeze, Ready, Spready Go, and Snow Be Gone Kenobi.

“Those are world-class names.”

It wasn’t just Scotland’s gritters getting a shout out from talk-show host. He also paid tribute to the Wiltshire’s, Usain Salt.

“When you have a name that good, it's a crime to leave that plough in storage for most of the year,” he said. “They should be proudly gritting the streets in the middle of August just to keep people's spirits up. Surely no one's gonna object to that. ‘Who just shot that salt all over my flip flops? Hold on, a vehicle called Usain Salt. Please allow me to retract my protest. Currently, no complaints on my end’.”

Doncaster’s Grity Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Anti Slip Machinery, and David Ploughie were also highly commended by the comic. 

“Those names were so good that they apparently rejected, because they didn't have space, they rejected the name Spready Mercury, meaning precisely that name was technically available so excuse me if I'm now, f****** furious at what Syracuse New York just did here. 

“What they've done is they’ve settled for Blizzard Beater when they could have had Spready Mercury.”

Oliver said it was a disgrace and a “fundamental betrayal of everything that makes us human.”

He added: “I don't think that's overstating it in the slightest. In fact, I'll go one step further here, it's fundamentally un-American.

“America as a nation, is supposed to do things in the extreme that's been its MO throughout its history, not always for the common good. 

“It landed on the moon, it launched numerous wars and invasions that were completely unwarranted, it made the McRib. It is the gold standard in extremely ill-advised action.”