THESE days most of us have far more personal living space than our forebears did more than a century ago.

Although there is still progress to be made, modern estates give families houses, garages and gardens that would have been beyond the imagination of those who had to live in the two up, two down back-to-back terraces of Victorian East Lancashire.

But if in those days we all mucked in alongside each other, today too many of us seem to have reverted to the sort of territorial behaviour we see in wildlife programmes on television.

Hedges and boundary fences are fought over, tiny patches of land become battlegrounds and light-blocking, fast-growing trees like Leylandii are planted allegedly for the sake of privacy.

Today we hear the latest episode in the tale of two warring neighbours -- Meyrick Johnson and Andrew Moore -- and their row over a 44 millimetre strip of land in Clitheroe, which has ended up in court on more than one occasion.

As life in the 21st century gets busier and busier, so many of us waste energy arguing with those around us about matters which surely are piffling compared with real life-threatening situations like war, famine and incurable diseases which face so many of our fellow human beings.

The only people to benefit from such rows are the legal profession and perhaps the makers of the electronic equipment which people buy to spy on the family next door.

Let's try to put things into perspective and follow the sentiment of the Biblical commandment about doing unto others. . .or the theme tune of TV's Neighbours!