Bill Bryson: Middle class Brits are so disgraceful

IT’S a lesson that should be learned early in life – behave well even when no one is watching.

But author Bill Bryson says welleducated, middle class Britons have bad manners when they think they won’t be noticed.

The popular writer is mourning the loss of social niceties after he spotted a woman leaving just 10p in a cafe tip jar.

Decked out in designer walking gear, the well-heeled pensioner had spent about £20 in a Lake District cafe but left the smallest of tips for the staff.

Bryson, the bestselling writer of Notes From A Small Island, said the episode showed how the middle classes had let social niceties slide. He described the ‘quietly disgraceful’ act as just one example of middle class Britons behaving badly when they think they can get away with it. He wrote: ‘I am guessing she assumed that it was full of coins already and that

‘Think they can get away with it’

hers would disappear among many others, but when I stepped up, I could see that the bowl had a solitary 10p coin in it.

‘Am I wrong or is this becoming a feature of British life – behaving in quietly disgraceful ways when you think no one is watching?

‘I am not saying that this is exclusive to the British or that it is universal among them by any means. It barely used to exist at all and now you see it pretty regularly.’

Bryson, 63, who was born in America but moved to Britain in 1973, describes the social faux pas in his new book, The Road To Little Dribbling: More Notes From A Small Island. He argued it was preferable to not leave a tip rather than give such a paltry sum.

‘Lots of people are governed not so much by whether something is right or wrong as by whether they think anyone’s watching.

‘Conscience only operates when there are witnesses. You might not leave a tip – you were British after all – but you wouldn’t pretend to leave a decent tip and then stick in a small coin.’