Is being grumpy a God-given right?

Or are we finding any old reason to be grumpy even when there is nothing to be grumpy about?

Of course there are fair few things I would highlight that require a new level of grumpiness.

The persistent rain, the price of diesel and automated checkouts to name but a few.

But on the whole I sense now that it has become all too easy to become grumpy for the sake of being grumpy.

This week I read about how these charity collectors, known as chuggers have been banned in one town centre for five days a week.

Okay, I am no fan of those these folk but they just seem so happy all the time.

We shrug our shoulders and walk past but for one moment of the day you get great hello and a smile. It brightens up the day.

Some years ago some people were having a good old moan about young people hanging around in town centres.

You know the ones – they dress funny, have weird haircuts and hold skateboards. In other words ‘teenagers’.

Most of them weren’t causing any problems; it just seemed we needed another reason to say things were not great and everything was going down the pan.

Now, I know things are expensive and last week I paid 78p for a Flake. Yes, 78p. In fact what the hell is going on? A Bounty is 80p, a Kit Kat (an ordinary Kit Kat!) and a bag of disco’s is 49p.

But why on earth is grumpy now ‘cool’?

When you meet a person who generally just gets on with their job and doesn’t moan about every third thing we think there is something wrong with them.

And this grumpiness has been transferred on to Facebook and Twitter.

Scrolling through some messages on the social network sites I noticed that the majority were full of people moaning about the insignificant things and getting praised for it.

Want to be grumpy? Fine, just don’t do it on my time.