Brollie battle gets personal

Umbrella etiquette, it seems, is not part of the British psyche. At the first sign of drizzle, the usual procession of eye-gouging, hair-pulling and ear-scratching umbrellas adorn our pavements.

While not exactly solving this problem, internet company Branded Brollies may have provided the means by which you can at least tell where these umbrella-wielding maniacs work.

The newly launched website (www.brandedbrollies. co.uk) offers a wide range of style, finishes and colours for your personalised umbrella needs. The Diary is (easily) impressed, but would be more so if Branded Brollies could produce an umbrella that doesn’t take the eye out when in the hands of a homicidal shopper with a grudge against anyone who comes within 20 yards of them.