Could this doorman at Harrods be one of a
dying breed? Photograph: Sean Smith/
GuardianGoodness gracious! You can almost hear the shudder of tea trays across the country. England, it seems, is not as polite as it once was. In fact these days, if a Reader's Digest survey is to be believed, the English are as rude as the French. Quelle horreur!

Reader's Digest recently sent undercover reporters to cities around the world to conduct what Katherine Walker, editor-in-chief of the British edition, calls "the world's biggest real-life test of common courtesy". More than 2,000 staged scenarios were set up to see if inhabitants held doors open or helped people pick up dropped papers in busy locations, and to see how often shop assistants said thank you. London scored 57%, as did Paris, placing both England and France in joint 15th place among a list of 35.

Supposedly brusque New Yorkers achieved a top score of 80% for America thanks to their penchant for holding doors open, and Switzerland followed closely behind with 77%, due to its shopkeepers - apparently the best-mannered in the world. Brazilians in Sao Paulo also bettered the Brits with a score of 68%, but at least we beat the Australians (at something), who came in at 24th place, with a score of 47%. Mumbai in India came bottom of the list, with a measly score of 32%.

But could this really be true? Only yesterday in the Guardian Stuart Jeffries wrote about a survey that found French shop assistants to be the worst in Europe, but ranked those in England second-best, after Germany's. So who is to be believed? Are we pushy or polite? Perhaps, had those Reader's Digest sneaks strayed outside the capital, they would have encountered ladies in quaint little villages with Devonshire tea at the ready, which, as we all know, is what England is really like ... isn't it?