Sorry – got carried away there, squire.

I thoroughly recommend the Overland. I use it most mornings to get to Liverpool Street and although it is unreliable, it is at least pleasant. When people are shoving you, you get a nice view out of the window…

The gentle pushing I can deal with anyway, especially as a lot of it is accidental. If you said “Excuse me” or “sorry” to every person who was in your way at a major railway terminus first thing in the morning, you’d be tired in a matter of minutes.

I may try getting the Overground into work very soon anyway. It was a bit unreliable before, but it’s nothing like as crowded, and apparently it’s much better now (and considerably cheaper – one pound each way into Camden, I ask you!)

I am really surprised that anyone accuses you of rudeness. What seems to usually happen in London is that people just push and shove, and ignore each other. That is why the ‘I have no compassion’ woman stood out to me. Typically, people just glare at each other rather than have shouting matches.

You are right though, it is people in large cities who do tend to have issues with politeness and civility. It’s definitely, as Keith mentioned above, nothing to do with race, class, gender or background. I’m almost impressed by how stunningly rude people in Beijing were when we were there. People really did just shove you out of the way. Maybe Beijingers would feel at home in Istanbul?

As for London, I tend to get accused of rudeness when I just happen to brush past people who are dithering backwards and forwards in a distracted way (sarcastic man on tube last week: “OH NO, you GO AHEAD, sir!”) I also accidentally trod on the foot of a man on the platform who was blocking the doors and trying to barge on before I could alight. He was none too impressed when I didn’t apologise – it was a genuine accident, but I couldn’t be bothered because it was his own fault for deliberately getting in the way. People blocking the train exits is one of my pet hates, especially if they pretend not to notice you trying to get off.

I work in Camden, though, so it’s rammed with teenage tourists who aren’t especially polite, and are a bit dozy about their environment as well. If you badly want to get from A to B because there’s an urgent meeting on, inevitably you’re going to accidentally bump a few Eurogoths on the way, and they do tend to be a bit over-sensitive.

To be honest, I don’t find the residents of any very large city (for which read a population of 7 million plus) any nicer than Londoners. When I went to Istanbul, I was stunned – they actually grab you by the shoulders and pull you out of their way!

You don’t happen to live in a Warner flat near Blackhorse Road tube do you? I was walking down the road this morning behind a man who I swear was humming Tiny Tim tunes!

Ill Man, lets just hope that she was having a bad day. A very bad day and that she feels eternally guilty about how it made her behave. That is far worse punishment than a smack in the mouth.

The term ‘I hope your next one’s a hedgehog’ springs to mind.