Are table manners important anymore?

Nancy Mitford's book about 'U' and 'non-U' was meant to be humerous, albeit with a cutting edge.

It is surely a sign of people's insecurities that they take it so seriously.

I couldn't give a toss. Good manners, that is courtesy for other people, should be one's guiding rule, not arcane rules drawn up 150 years ago at the height of Queen Victoria's reign.

Manners help to oil the wheel of social intercourse. We all know the rules and find life runs smoother and more courteously when following them.

However, these rules do change over time - as we would expect, so insisting on continuing with outdated rules sometimes look and sound ridiculous to the modern taste.

Where there are rules of etiquette insisted on by particular groups - this is a different matter - and really just a game they play which has no bearing on any other circumstance.

Yes it is just a game played by certain groups. Table manners, among other things, convey non verbal cues as to social background which matters to some people.

Good table manners are extremely important as are all aspects of behaviour, good manners ie thank you notes etc are a sign of a civilised society.

I really don't think that civilisation will collapse if people start to use their forks as spoons.

Doodledog

I really don't think that civilisation will collapse if people start to use their forks as spoons.

Certainly didn’t last night at our choir’s post Christmas dinner. Just for fun I counted the UKLP and MKGIS. 42% were UKLP, 58% were MKGIS.
Nobody appeared to be exhibiting their superiority because of the way they held their knife, (though reading posts on here, some may well have been saving up to express their disgust when they got home) and no one appeared to struggle with cutting food, which ever way they used.
No one I could see ate with their mouth open or talked with their mouth full, but we were a big group so I might have missed that.
I never really look at how people use their knives until the yearly visit on GN when I’m reminded of the MKGIS.

MKGIS?