Last updated 11:35, Thursday, 01 May 2008

A TV poll this week showed that in Britain the peasants really are revolting.

Bad manners are rife and, according to the survey of 2,800 people carried out for ITV’s Tonight programme, it’s getting uglier by the day.

No wonder half the migrant EU workers who flooded into the country after 2004 are now heading home.

Maybe it’s not just because they have made some money and feel homesick now the jobs situation in their own countries has improved.

I reckon many of them, coming as they do from a respectful, hard working, family ethic, are disillusioned with what they have seen of our supposedly mature, decent society.

Sad but true, we have turned into Rude Britannia where bad language can be heard on the streets virtually every day, and where unsavoury habits such as spitting, belching, queue jumping, arguing over parking spaces and simply being surly and unpleasant, are commonplace.

The green and pleasant land which attracted these overseas workers may, in reality, have failed to live up to their hopes and expectations.

Many British peoples are resentful and unsmiling. Not a common characteristic in these Eastern European workers.

Perhaps we should be offering them jobs to stay here – to teach our young workers some manners and how to treat customers courteously. Heaven knows, some of them need it.

The collapse of old fashioned etiquette and manners is symbolic of a lack of common respect.

And it’s not simply down to bad parenting and a failure to bring up kids knowing basic right from wrong.

Adults are as much to blame as they wander the streets and populate the shops and cafes plugged into their personal stereos and attached as if my some mystical force to their mobile phones.

At least here in Cumbria people still make eye contact and speak when you pass them in the street.

But try doing that in one of the big cities and they will look at you like you are mad – or try to mug and stab you I shouldn’t wonder.

Manners have also suffered from the political correctness that bugs the modern world. There was a time when a man would give up his seat on the bus or train to a lady. Do it these days and they will probably accuse you of sexist behaviour.

Another factor is that we don’t have respect for authority any more.

Mainly because authority figures don’t deserve it much of the time, with their own shoddy conduct and petty bureaucracy.

It’s an inconsiderate, selfish and in many ways uncaring society.

And I wonder how many EU migrant workers discovered that as they came over here to undertake the low paid, backbreaking jobs that our own benefit scroungers would run a mile to avoid?

People were concerned about the influx of foreign workers, but they can teach us a lot about manners and how to treat customers.

And in practical terms, the fact that so many of them now want to go home could cause major problems for businesses that have come to rely on their good nature and willingness as employees.