Excuse me. But I wonder if it’s all right to ask you to read this blog about manners?

What ever happened to manners?

You’re probably not familiar with manners. They used to involved saying things like “Excuse me” and “Thank you so much” and “I beg your pardon” and “It’s no trouble.”

But they’ve gone.

It is quite normally now, it seems, to barge in front of someone in a queue for the till – and I’m not even talking about the ignorance and selfishness of those who refuse to wear masks.

I’m just talking plain bad manners.

You open a door for a lady and she looks at you as if you’ve just insulted her rather than saying “Thank you.”

You let someone out into traffic and they just ignore you instead of giving that little smile and wave of thanks motorists used to give each other.

If you’re accidentally in someone’s way in a shop of petrol station or whatever, they push past. The days of “Excuse me” are long gone.

“What?” or even “Wha?” has replaced “I beg your pardon.” 

You stop at the spice rack in the supermarket and stare at it looking for the turmeric or chilli flakes and a hand reaches over your shoulder as someone, without saying a word, grabs a bottle of basil and rushes off.

You see a lot of bad manners in car parks. The people who park in blue badge spaces who, when challenged, don’t apologise but invariably say “I’ll only be a minute.”

The people who knowingly park in such a way as they take up two spaces.

Then there are the people who talk with their mouths full spluttering little bits of half eaten food all over the place. And that was appalling behaviour long before Covid.

And of course the correct use of knives and forks has been lost in mists of time as has the rule which says we shouldn’t put our elbows on the table. There are people around today who’d put their ankles on the table if they could.

The mobile ‘phone has brought with it a raft of bad manners. There are those who, completely ignoring you, answer calls in mid conversation. There are those who answer ‘phones during meals. Those who roar into their ‘phones or put a hand up urging others to be quiet while they take a call. And then there are the really rude people who answer ‘phones in cinemas.

We’ve had manners for hundreds of years. In fact saying “bless you” when someone sneezes goes all the way back to the sixth century when Pope Gregory 1 urged people to say “bless you” to people who sneezed in case it was a sign of the plague. 

And what about those ignoramuses who stand in front of the doors of a lift so it’s almost impossible to get out without asking them to move?

Oh, that’s enough.

It would be rude to go on about it any more.

Anyway thank you for reading this.