We all have neighbours, whether near or far away, and on the whole we all rub along just fine.

The young couple who rented the house next to me were lovely and I was saddened when they announced their moving out due to the non-flexibility of their landlord (who is a lying nob and acutely boring).

The perfect next door people really. I never heard a pip out of them after 8pm and even before that one couldn’t call them noisy.

Now the house lay empty once again and I await the arrival of the new with nervousness and trepidation.

Only a few can say they live next door to the Satan-sporned people from hell amd I have been lucky as not to be included in that number.

Our island is becoming increasingly more crowded and with that comes inherent problems. Everywhere one goes there are throngs of people, queues of cars and acres of concrete and at times tempers flare. New homes are shrinking in size to enable developers to squeeze more out of the land. It will be inevitable that tempers will fray and break as folk are forced to live upon each other and personal space is something of dreams.

This means being neighbourly is even more important and vital for happiness and social balance. I couldn’t imagine what life is like on those sink estates and terrorized high-rise flats. Education and moral upbringing is vital for harmony and these areas seem to lack both.

Even the postcard images of village life can be far from ideal. Nosey neighbours and busy bodies can cause hatred and ostricisation. In the main most knuckle under and fit in.

But at what cost is being neighbourly? Compromise….showing a side that is false, greed and jealousy. ???Certainly some of that but not all for everyone.

How lucky most of us are.