Finger picking

I was thinking about rude gestures the other day - I don't know why - and something occurred to me. When was the last time you saw anyone in the UK waving two fingers in anger at anybody?

The V-sign was common in my youth but in the past five or 10 years, most probably as a result of US TV culture, the middle finger gesture has taken over. Upset another road-user and what do you get? Yes, the middle finger.

I don't use either gesture, of course, but if I did I think I would struggle with the latter since raising my middle finger simply doesn't come naturally. The vital moment would have passed and there would be a danger of simply waving a bunch of fingers Ted Rogers-style which would look rather bland and inappropriately inoffensive.

The two-fingered gesture, on the other hand (that's the expression not a literal reference), is more easily executed and carries with it a greater sense of defiance in my opinion.

I thought it had a longer pedigree too until I read this piece. I'm wary of Wikipedia articles that reference web sites, particularly one that, rather than debunk a story, simply casts doubt on it.

I still find it credible that the English archers at Agincourt would have raised their two fingers at the French, even if the threat of having them cut off is an elaboration. If the article is correct, however, it seems that the middle-finger insult has an even longer pedigree with origins in Roman times and possibly earlier.

Whichever way you look at it, therefore, the two-fingered gesture seems more fittingly British than the imported single finger. So I'd like to raise two fingers to the middle finger gesture. Send it back where it came from.