Good manners

AS I APPROACHED a bus stop a few days ago I encountered some youths swaggering and swearing in an obnoxious manner. When I joined the queue at the bus stop, I heard mutterings along the lines of “What’s the world coming to?” and: “Is this the future?”

My bus duly came along and at the next stop some pupils from a local school pushed on. It was then I was delighted to hear one of their number taking a principled stand and admonishing a friend: “Ye cannae say that tae a lassie. Ye cannae say that…”

Scotland can still cherish hope for the future, as neither our sense of decency nor the guid Scots tongue are yet moribund.

ISABEL NORVAL

Ryehill Grove

Edinburgh