My Mum swears by ecinatia (sp?) and shed loads of vitamin C to get rid
of a cold. Do these two things work? Secondly, what are the best
remedies (with or without medicine) for a cold?

If they work for Mum, they obviously work.

Mummy knows best.

I believe that the spelling is Echinacea (or some such).

TIME

take all the stuff you want and you will get rid of it in 14 days

Take nothing at all and you'll have to put up with it for a full fortnight

the common cold is a virus infection.

Vitamin C seems to work for me when I feel a cold coming on ( level
teaspoon of the powder in a glass of water or tablets that foam and
have sweetener).  Of course, you should have been getting enough Vit.
C all along.
Didn't Mom also recommend inhaling as hot air as you can stand (Towel
over your head over a pan of boiled water, maybe with some additive
like a few drops of Japan oil?)  The virus is temperature sensitive,
can't stand temperatures over
39° C (102°F) or so (did I read about that here?).
Echinacea is supposed to help the immune system, and has websites here
in Germany, pointing out that it is an old Indian (First Peoples for
you Canadians) remedy.
Siiconsamurai's answer is local lore here also:  "You can go to the
doctor, and it takes two weeks, or just stay home for a fortnight"
(but the doctor will put you on sickleave).

not just local lore, the scientific data from hundreds of controlled studies.

Many years ago the Brits did a big study and proved to a statistical
certainty that you don't catch a cold from being out in the rain,
don't get over it quicker by doing various things, etc.

The reason you want to take care when you catch a cold it to avoid
also catching pneumonia.

The problem with taking something when you think you are catching a
cold and then don't get it is that you have no idea whether you really
were catching a cold, i.e. has a viral infection.

Vitamin C does a great job of drying up sinuses and such which can
clear up alergy symptoms that can be mistaken for "catching" a cold.

Please see:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=485015

Thanks!