THE scenes on 'Black Friday' were both ludicrous and utterly disturbing.

People fighting to get their hands on goods that have had prices slashed by a few quid.

Seriously?!

Is it really worth braving a black eye and bruises to get a cut-price TV?

Not in my book.

Clearly thousands of Brits thought otherwise though and decided to get stuck in to shopping's answer to the mosh pit.

I'd like to be able to say something like "each to their own".

But the whole thing is so crass I can't.

It is yet another example of society's relentless race to the bottom.

Come on people - it's not worth fighting over electrical goods!

It just isn't.

Especially when you consider people must have booked time off work - only to spend the day jabbing other shoppers with their elbows and pummelling their way through crowds.

I couldn't think of a worse way to spend one of my hard-earned days off.

Some of the scenes were truly appalling to watch, with people engaging in tugs of war over TVs and clambering over each other to get to computers.

It's no wonder people got hurt - but the shops also have questions to answer for encouraging this kind of behaviour.

The knock-on effect for emergency services as a result of peoples' actions was absurd.

Police and ambulance were called to scenes where shoppers had either been injured or needed to be arrested for their behaviour.

This puts a strain on what are already stretched resources.

The whole thing begs the question why we even bothered to appropriate this American concept.

Normally us Brits are known for our queueing decorum.

But as soon as the idea of getting our grubby hands on cheap electronics is mooted it turns us into a baying mob.

Hopefully the craziness of the day around the country this year will make people think twice about getting involved next year.

Unfortunately, I doubt it.