AN academic has spent four years and thousands of pounds reaching the conclusion that British people hate queueing.

In the pursuit of his studies, David Stewart-David spent 92 days standing in more than 2,000 queues.

His work, which was funded by a £2,000 grant from Northumbria University, in Newcastle, set out to unravel why we hate standing in line.

He now believes "queue rage" stems from a number of factors, including the time of year, the weather and the hour of the day.

And he says Britons are becoming more like our European neighbours in our reluctance to wait our turn.

He said: "I have been standing in queues at stations, airports and supermarkets for four years to ask people how they feel about waiting and to make observations on queuing etiquette.

"I once stood in queue at the passport office for a full 26 hours. That is the longest time I have spent in a queue."

In his report, The Stressful Queue, he says: "Three to four minutes is our tolerance level for buying a train ticket - at which point people visibly begin to look stressed."

As for his own tolerance, he said, "No one likes waiting a long time, but if the staff are being as efficient as possible and it is just busy, then I try to understand."