The world needs more compliments. Just try not to be weird about it | Emma Beddington

I’m inspired by Barbara from Stroud, who went viral for her way with a kind word. What we don’t need is the corporate nonsense from the likes of M&S and ‘chief compliments officer’ Gillian Anderson

I hope you don’t mind me saying that you are looking very nice today. Ugh, no, sorry, start again.

I have been thinking a lot about compliments – why, how, good and bad ones – because of Barbara from Stroud, whose vox pop went viral when she was asked how to make someone’s day better. “If I see someone and I like their shoes, dress, hat, I say so,” she said. That this quite ordinary comment, albeit from a clearly delightful woman, got millions of views and compliments in return (including from former England goalie Mary Earps) suggests an understandable longing for nano acts of niceness.