What's happening to us? Why are we so angry?

But the real tragedy is that we're hardly surprised by it any more. It might be extreme but it's become almost normal. So many people are so angry so much of the time.

Road rage, trolley rage, noise rage... just plain rage.

A young man leaving Marks & Spencer last week cursed two old ladies and nearly knocked them flying because they didn't move fast enough out of his way... A middle-aged man in a posh car called me all the names under the sun when I beat him to a parking space (I smiled sweetly at him, which made him even crosser)... when there was a problem at the till in Debenhams and we all sighed heavily and impatiently, but one woman threw the jacket she'd chosen on to the floor and stormed out rather wait for what would have been no more than five minutes at most. If she ever goes back in a better mood, I do hope that jacket's gone.

Apart from anything else, all this anger is such a waste of energy and does nothing for the blood pressure.

The Government is considering legislation that would force many mentally ill people to take their medication and so reduce the chance of their attacking people for no reason.

But the truly frightening thing is that so many of these angry people aren't mentally ill. They are perfectly normal, healthy, respectable people, but so wired that the slightest problem sends them into orbit with fists flying.

And that's before the Christmas shopping rush really gets going.

Maybe it's because we're too stressed too crowded, too busy. Maybe we've become too selfish, so concerned about ourselves that anyone else is just an irritation and intrusion. Maybe we've just forgotten our manners or just never learnt self-control.

Whatever the reason, it's not good news, especially - as a very rough rule of thumb - it seems that younger people get angrier more quickly. Now that doesn't bode well for the future.

Enjoy your Christmas shopping. And if you're tempted to fling all your purchases at someone, just remember, won't you, that it's the season of peace and goodwill.

THE cost of the Olympics has already soared by £900m and now looks as though it will hit £3.3bn - and there's still more than five years to go.

Meanwhile, sport is being squeezed out of the school curriculum, playing fields are being sold off and, in any case, many parents are unwilling to let their children play out unsupervised.

And the Government's health watchdog has recommended that seriously overweight children should receive surgery, such as stomach-stapling, on the NHS - which is definitely a case of treating the symptom not the cause.

The Olympics are wonderful but, of course, deal only with the handful of elite athletes at the top of their game, leaving the rest of us sitting in front of the TV, gawping in admiration.

Now if all the money that's going on the Olympics went instead to fund swimming pools, sports centres and playing fields in every neighbourhood, with plenty of free access for the under 16s, we might not win too many more gold medals, but we would have happier, healthier children - and a lot less need for extreme operations.

IF you count up all the shopping, cooking, party planning and making of nativity play costumes and pay them at the going rate, then the average mum apparently does £18,000 of work for Christmas. And you know what happens then, don't you? - some man turns up in a red suit and whiskers and takes all the glory.

Typical.

IN my role not just as chief cook and bottlewasher but also chauffeur and all round Mrs Good Wife, I found myself with two hours to kill at the top of Teesdale on a cold dark Sunday night.

So I drifted into the Langdon Beck Hotel where they had log fires burning merrily in three rooms. I found a comfy chair beside one of them, warmed my toes, had a drink and read the papers till my chauffeuring duties called again.

The welcome was as warm as the fire. How tempting to settle in for the night and let the other half find his own way home.

THINKING of the other half.

Last week at the Christmas Tree Festival - brilliant idea, brilliantly done - I met many of the ladies of Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. What a smashing group they are, and again, very welcoming.

They were also clearly a very intelligent, discerning, perceptive lot. Well, many of them told me they preferred this half of this page to the other...

RUBY Wax, above, has apparently turned down the chance to appear in Celebrity Big Brother because her children would find it embarrassing.

But being embarrassing is what Ruby Wax does so well. She has perfected the art. Practice, after all, makes perfect. Why stop now?

Ah. Maybe Ruby Wax's children are growing up. We wait to see if their mother does the same.