Without being tarred with the same brush as Piers Corbin, could this
current cooler winter have something to do with the lack of sun spot
activity?

Currently there are NO sunspots on our sun today (05/01/09), and 2008
was the least active year since 1900.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images20...osdrcbrl m7o7

http://www.smeter.net/propagation/su...spot-cycle.php

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/12/3...tends-cooling/