FUHGEDDABOUDIT, PULEEZE!

London fails civility test in survey of world cities (Alan Hamilton, The Times, June 20th, 2006)

English good manners, did you say? No, they don’t exist. In fact, we’re as rude as the French, and that’s saying something. They’re more polite even in Zagreb.

For courtesy these days you have to go to New York, a city once famed for its intensely irritating “Have a nice day” culture and for the most ignorant and impatient taxi drivers on the planet.

But, according to a former mayor of the Big Apple, 9/11 changed all that.

Reader’s Digest magazine sent reporters into the principal city of each of the 35 countries in which it publishes to conduct a survey of local politeness. Three tests were employed: dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help; checking how often shop assistants said “thank you”; and counting how often someone held a door open.

London and Paris came a disappointing joint 15th, beaten by such cities as Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid and Prague. New York came top in the survey, with a score of 80 per cent, compared with 57 per cent for London and Paris.