Sean Coughlan

It's all too easy to be negative about life, especially when there are some areas of life where we're clearly getting better.

For instance, we're much better at being rude to each other. We've improved beyond recognition in the past few years. And much of the credit for this must go to telephone cold-calling staff.

I can't be the only person to find their phone is being over-run by junk calls. You're busy with something useful, like pouring yourself a stiff drink after work, when the phone rings. It's someone trying to sell you insurance for your electric toothbrush or claiming that you've won a prize in a competition you've never entered. Or else it's "research" into plastic doors or an invitation to collect a free holiday.

A few years ago, we would have been politely defensive, and taking care not to offend, we'd have said thanks, but no thanks. In fact, we'd have been so darned polite we'd have been exchanging Christmas cards by the end of it. Now the receiver gets slammed down quicker than a Tequila on a Mexican stag night. No more Mr Nice Guy. No more small talk. And they've learned to be rude back.

I was called this week by a gas tout trying to push me into changing supplier. When I didn't jump at the opportunity, they put the phone down on me. And again, full marks for rudeness. Disturb someone at home and then cut them off. But who falls for these calls? There must be some sucker feeding these sharks.

"So you're offering a free holiday? All we have to do is pay a £100 booking fee and attend a two-day time-share presentation in an interrogation centre, strapped into a chair without any food, water or natural light. Sounds like a great opportunity. Thanks for taking the time to call me."

It's like those emails from fraudsters pretending to come from your bank. I know we write scare stories about these scams - but have you seen the cack-handed way these fakes are written? If those boys got hold a spell-checker they'd be dangerous.

Another unsung group of heroes in the rudeness revolution are the chuggers - those hyperactive charity collectors who block the pavement with their clipboards, punchable smiles and over-sized egos. Pedestrians now blank them without even a flicker of recognition. They've become shopping centre roadkill. And their remarkable achievement is that when someone mentions any of these hard-working charities, I immediately think of these jerks hassling people.

This rudeness epidemic is everywhere, as though in a single generation we've gone from tongue-tied introverts to a bunch of mouthy New York cab drivers. Airport check-ins, shops, restaurants, there's always someone throwing a tantrum. We've become confrontation junkies. "Whaddya mean the bank's closing? You talking to me? You talking to me, Mr Mainwaring?" They used to say that people in this country didn't know how to complain. Now we don't know when to shut up.

Today's best video

Today in pictures