Most people if you murmur to them "There's ketchup on your chin", "Your flies are undone", "Your skirt's tucked in your knickers" or something similar will give you an embarrassed smile of thanks and rectify the problem before anyone else notices. One in a hundred will go off at the deep end as if it is rude of you to notice and ruder still to mentiion it. My nephew has just done this because I told both him and my father that the corn on the cob had left butter on their chins. My father wiped his chin.

It is a more difficult matter if the criticism is of something done or - more often - not done. The teacher can say "You would have done better in the exam if you had bothered to revise" but it is much harder for a pupil to say "I would have done better in the exam if you had bothered to teach me the correct syllabus". We all have the right to criticise. Or do we? How many people actually have the right to criticise their employers or their customers? The customer is not always right and neither is the boss.

Most people nowadays suffer from customer care feedback forms, but there is seldom a medium for reply. We all should have the right to respond, and if we criticise we should accept that the one criticised has that right.

We should also remember that if we are prepared to say when things are not right, we have an equal duty to praise when they are - especially when people have gone that extra mile for you. (see last blog)