IT is not that I don’t like people who jump a queue…. I feel sorry for them. For they have lost the one thing that makes us what we are… simple manners.

This week I have been ‘done over’ several times by people who do not want to queue, or think I like standing around like an idiot with a shopping basket.

I think that very term – ‘done over’ – was invented by someone who had been queuing for several minutes only to have someone push in at the front.

There have been times when the other person has realised their mistake and then apologised straightaway. Like most people, I have no problem with this.

The several seconds of sheer hatred that boils up from the gut is soon followed by that wonderful little phrase… ‘It’s quite alright’.

I have no idea why I end up saying this. In fact, I have no idea why anyone would say this. Am I now saying that it is okay for you to push in like some selfish ‘so and so’?

Am I now implying that you stay where you are and do not go to the back of the queue?

There are, however, some things worse than having someone push in front of you.

It is when someone else lets the queue-jumper get away with it.

I was perplexed to see one reasonably good-looking woman push herself to the front of the supermarket queue.

The problem was the man behind was kind of enjoying the view and said nothing.

Of course, I did not have the authority to confront this lady because I was several places back. There are now several moments of panic on the faces of the rest of the people in the queue.

Is someone going to say something?

This is preposterous. Who will aid us in our hour of need?

Where is the shopping attendant?

Why is this not being policed by someone?

Our prayers were soon answered by the middle-aged woman with two screaming kids who decided to do the honours for the rest of the team.

Oh, the joy. The lady at the front had to walk to the back of the queue and the fellow behind her was made to look like a wimp.

I felt like presenting the mum with a hero award at that very moment.