well done to you jaymar, we have i think lost the basics of common curtesy in this country..and this is a root cause of a lot of the problems of crime and dare i say it integration of ethnic communities ( who on the whole i find to be better mannered than the rest of us injuns).. i always give up my seat on the bus or train to women ( yes i no chauvinist) and especially the elderly, i always greet people with good morning or hello including complete strangers ( which sadly my children find horrifying).
i do strongly believe that manners maketh man /woman
Thank you to you both, yes I admit I'm terrible about sticking up for elderly and infirm people. It infuriates me because these people will be relying on assistance themselves one day.
Oh my goodness this is something very close to my heart. I was actually having a bit of a bitch about basic manners earlier.
I am amazed, when you eat out, how many people lack basic table manners. Eat off their knives, chew with their mouth open, ram huge amounts of food into their mouths etc. Ok call me old fashioned..........I was always taught bring your food to your mouth, not your mouth to the food............Oh I could go on all day.............but I wont.
Suffice it to say that when I meet someone for fun, its sometimes something to do with manners that may put me off taking things further. Yes I know Im picky, but thats just me. Oh those Nuns at my catholic school have so much to answer for.........lol
Good topic Mr L, the saying "manners maketh the man" is more true today than ever before with what appears to be a general malaise in this country when it comes to basic civil decency and behaviour.
You only have to look around you at the way the parents of some children behave to understand why their offspring can be so obnoxious. The way the media glorify the antics of so-called celebrities is another facet to this general downturn in our nation's manners.
It costs nothing to say please and thank you but so many people don't or just can't be bothered. If we all made just that little bit more effort to do it once a day then Britain would be a happier place to live.
Politeness is all well and good when applied to people and situations that are condusive to it. Its nice to see it done well, and one can always learn to get better at it.
But there are occasions where politeness just doesn't get results. This does not mean having to be rude, but accepting that in some cases being direct and conveying your true feelings are necessary to get the message across.
For example; this often occurs when we have a good reason to make a complaint and are able to focus on getting the details right and conveying them with the right tone of voice.
Again with manners they work best when the other person knows how to reciprocate. Good manners can be wasted on an uncouth lout, who has no desire to engage in such behaviour, probably because they have never been taught or needed to use it.
I think one of the classic examples of good manners is the doorway, yielding and offering process. This requires someone to either give way or hold the door open. Now I often find that people hesitate and it looks as if someone could do the honorable thing. But no, regardless of the circumstances, we choose to ignore one another and attempt to squeeze through the doorway in opposite directions, holding our heads aloof and with teeth clenched. Not very dignified, and a sad loss to one of the basic elements of courtesy.
manners cost nothing but i have seen quite a few incidences lately that the elderly have little or none and some youngsters are very polite,
Getting a bus a few weeks ago with son (it was school leaving time so full of teenagers) 2 lads got up and offered me and son the seat without a second thought very polite well mannered teens
going back about a month i was in the bank paying some bills when a elderly man being served by another clerk started shouting, He wanted to take a large sum of money from the account and didnt have any id. He got more and more angry at the fact he could not have his money eventually trying to break the glass screen with his walking stick . i was scared but cant imagine how the clerks must of felt it ended in the man being taken away by police the clerks had been nothing but polite to him explaining rules was rules he retaliated by shouting and swearing and getting violent :shock:
about 6 months ago in doctors surgery an elderly woman came in went to reception no one took any notice until the women replyed to the receptionist "the doctor better be english i cant see no ****** doctor" receptionist then went on to explain that there was only 1 doctor on that day and yes she was indeed coloured (the waiting room was also mixed race) the womans rant went on and was very racial and on infront of all waiting and the receptionist trying her best not to say something wrong only to calm to woman down, the woman left without seeing a doctor but i couldnt help thinking at the time if the woman had been anything other than the age she was, she would have been escorted from the building by police and had to find herself another doctors.
i in general am always polite to everyone but have lately found the elderly to be more ill mannered than any other age group
It's only a little thing but a quick gesture wouldn't go amiss.
so me being me ... I gave him a little surprise with my trolley wheels on his ankles! 
but there is no good morning class said by the teacher and no answer of good morning Miss/Mr chorused in reply. Manners should be part of the syllabus as anything else I think. It should be requisite not optional.
DAMN! I never thought of that! I've just been round to our chinese to get some prawn crackers because it was the only item I didn't have in for tea... and I PAID for them!!!
