Life

This Is How Many Brits Want Queue Jumping To Be Made A Crime & TBH, Same

by Sophie McEvoy
Audrey Shtecinjo/Stocksy

It's British tradition to be judgmental (on the inside, ofc), but it's no secret that you probably share a number of seemingly mundane annoyances with the rest of the nation. If like me you've been wondering whether you share a similar grievance with middle lane hoggers, you're in luck because CBS Justice recently conducted a nationwide survey that has revealed the top everyday actions that Brits want made into criminal offences. A list of grievances that the nation believes should be criminal? I mean, how British can you get.

While they survey only touches upon a fraction of Brits, the 2,000 respondents that shared their answers held absolutely no bounds into what they deemed a crime. Top of the list came discarding chewing gum on the street at 37 percent, while people who decided to walk around their workplace office with bare feet came in last with 8 percent. 32 percent believed that queue jumping — perhaps the ultimate British sin — should be a crime, and 20 percent believed the same for those who don't say thank you when you hold a door open for them.

Others atrocities include using mobile phones in the cinema (30 percent), listening to music through phone speakers in public (28 percent), being rude to waiters (25 per ent), eating smelly food on public transport (21 percent), and breaking wind in public (10 percent). Ooh, I'm already getting irked just by reading some of these.

Julia Ramiro Martín/Stocksy

Although, it seems like there are two issues that Brits seem to care the most about when it comes to serving an actual consequence for the action. 26 percent of respondents believed that drivers caught hogging the middle lane should be jailed, and 22 percent believe that the outcome for letting your children run rampant in a restaurant should be a night in prison. Talk about harsh.

Surprisingly though, there's absolutely no mention of littering on the list other than chewing gum being discarded on the pavement. Yes, littering is a criminal offence, but that hasn't stopped the sheer amount of rubbish that people feel the need to throw out of their cars or leave on beaches. I will forever hold a grudge against litterers, okay.

Despite 50 percent of respondents admitting that they'd tell their loved ones off for misbehaving and 12 percent stating they couldn't be friends with someone who committed these acts, 66 percent of those who answered the survey also confessed to having enacted at least one of the crimes on the list.

Not only that, the survey also discovered the "criminal" capital of the UK is. Wanna know? *drumroll* It's Leicester, "with 83 percent of the local population confessing to these types of anti-social behaviour" which is "nearly a third more than the well-mannered folk of Norwich," which is sitting at 52 percent.

As a spokesperson for CBS Justice told Bustle UK, "this study shows that the British population has an abiding love for law and order — and perhaps a bit of sense of humour about it all too." Oh yes, if there's one thing us Brit's know what to do, it's complain but at least have a sense of humour with it (well, sometimes).