Accordians are bad enough but when you're trapped in a tube carriage with one and there's no escape, well... I'm pretty sure that sort of torture is against the Geneva Convention!

Muttley, I see your point although there is no such thing as a good bullet... maybe a Bridport necktie would be the answer.

An - I have that very Giles cartoon!! I want to be that Grandma when I'm older... I'm still trying to find the hat with the swallow on it though.

I also agree with Darowyn. There is a strong element of 'I have the right to play my music really loud if I want to and sod you' pervading the country. I witnessed a lively discussion between two people (yes, one was young and the other was older) over the volume of one of those MP3-playing phones. The youngster was shouting his rights to have the music as loud as he wanted and the older calmly trying to inform him that he had just as much right to ask for it to be quieter. Again, this happened on the tube train, an enclosed space where the protagonists had no chance of just walking away from it. People are very quick to profess their rights to something, but cannot understand that democracy is a two edged sword - that what they demand for themselves, others can also demand as loudly. The winner in this case was everyone as the loud phone's battery ran out.

LTS