I have never been a great fan of tipping as a means of raising the income of those who serve us in hotels and restaurants.

I admit that this partly because I don’t want to appear tight fisted on the one hand or flash on the other and it can be quite tricky to judge the tipping point sometimes.

I would much rather that waitresses, bar staff, porters, hairdressers and taxi drivers were paid a proper wage in the first place and did not have to rely upon the random generosity of strangers to reward their hard work.

There is something in the whole process that strikes me as being as being no less divisive and anachronistic as say hunting wild animals for pleasure and then posing proudly with the forlorn remains of a rhinoceros or grizzly bear.

It simply doesn’t compute in the 21st Century. And at the end of a pleasant evening with friends, wouldn’t it be so much easier to simply divide the first number that is placed in front of you instead of having to do complicated maths in order to boost the zero hours employee’s meagre hourly rate to something less shameful.

Add the cost of rewarding staff properly to the pricing of the food or service and you avoid the reduction of the relationship between waitress and customer to one where the latter has the unilateral right to judge whether their relationship has been conducted in a satisfactory manner.

If we are to keep this anachronistic formula for funding workers in service industries it should at least be reciprocal.

When groups of drunken males shake their inconsequential plumage in front of each other by being rude or aggressive towards waitresses or bar staff, then there should be a an equal and opposite right for the victim to say, “Sorry gentleman, that’s another ten percent on the bill.” An elegant use of Newton’s Third Law in the service industry.

On a recent visit to Sweden I was delighted to discover that they had a much more modern attitude to tipping. Staff there are paid properly; the consumer knows what the final reckoning is likely to be and there are no tricky decisions to be made when fellow diners chip in too little and you have to compensate for their stinginess.

Maybe it’s time they won the Eurovision Song Contest again, though I love our entry this time.