Pool

The other day, Mrs H and I were discussing how common it is to hear that such and such a person has an unpleasant parent, wife, husband or whatever. Not people we know, but people we hear about just outside our social periphery. Ordinary people who are said to be habitually spiteful, mean, oafish, selfish or otherwise unpleasant to know.

Not a huge number of people when compared to the number of people we hear of as opposed to knowing them. People mentioned casually during social chat, slightly beyond the outer reaches of our social world.

It does suggest that the pool of ghastly people who see themselves as MPs or in government bossing other people around – well it may be quite a large pool.