Reader Ron Brewer wonders why people are so selfish

Recently I’ve been increasingly aware of the behaviour of a particular group of people.

I‘ve been trying to work out a suitable acronym for them as PWDNTTRATT is not very memorable.

It sands for People Who Do Not Think The Rules Apply To Them.

They have been around for ages, throwing their rubbish out of car window or parking their vans on the pavements.

Then there are drivers who get annoyed if you travel at the legal speed limit as they want to go much faster.

Also those who put their feet up on the train seats or who adjust their plane seats so that they almost hit the face of those sitting behind. And that’s just considering transport. We can add those who insist of playing music on their phones so loud that we can still hear it when they have their headphones on.

Over the last year we have become more aware of such people. They didn’t want to social distance or wear facemasks. They thought that they were invincible and would never catch this nasty virus.

They didn’t think that their behaviour might cause others to fall ill with serious consequences.

So why did they behave in this way? Is it something they learnt at home? Did persistent litterers come from a household which was a rubbish tip of its own or were their parents so strict about tidiness that they enjoyed rebelling when they were outside their own home?

Did speeding motorists have parents and friends who were always late for everything and who only collected up a few three point penalties along the way?

Then there are those who can’t be bothered to split their household rubbish into the recommended categories, flinging in the nappies with the cereal boxes, unrinsed tins and rotting food waste.

There does appear to be this group of people who are just selfish.

They always think that they are right and therefore others must be wrong.

In my opinion, politicians fall into the category of those who are sure they are always right and those in other parties are therefore wrong.

Personally I find it very difficult to decide who to vote for when there are national elections as all parties promote some policies that I do not necessarily believe in.

How politicians can follow the party line on all votes rather than at time times voting according to their conscience is beyond me.

The most obvious answer would be to stand as an independent but you would have to be very rich to do this and have any chance of getting elected.

A further problem with present politicians is that they do not live in a real world.

With a salary of more than £80,000 a year plus generous payments towards their travel, office staffing and postage, many do not seem to understand how much (or little) many of their constituents have to live on.

Some like to make ‘guest appearances’ at food banks or vaccination clinics but I can’t see many of them committing to spending at least one day a week for a whole year doing important work as a volunteer.

Occasionally so-called important people like to join an overnight sleep on the streets, well knowing that there would be a bath or shower followed by a hearty breakfast awaiting them in the morning.

I would love to do a really serious experiment with a government minister or two to see if they really understood what it is to be homeless, say for a month.

They would have to start off in the situation of a real person sleeping on the streets.

Dress them up in old, dirty and smelly ill-fitting clothes to start with.

Make sure that their footwear had holes in the soles. Just a few coins and some food rescued from a litter bin.

And of course no help from their mates, no mobile phone or any other electronic help. I don’t imagine they would last very long.

Still not worked out a suitable acronym to use, perhaps just call them all IKs - Ignorant Knowalls.