well put tallpoppies - I was a bit surprised about the lack of cock, prick, knob, crap and turd.
I know that people seem happy with 'a cock up' but to me that describes an erection, and cock comes in the upper half of the list for me, insofar as I would not use it in polite society, the same as I wouldn't use prick to describe someone...
Crap seems acceptable to Americans (there's a 'crap game' which is cards or dice, cannot remember) but shit and crap are synonymous to me, and words I'd rarely use.
bloody, bugger, are low on my list too, along with blimey
I know there's something of a north/south divide on "twat" as in the way David Cameron seemed to think of it as fool (a parallel with prat, or twit, perhaps) while it is treated as up there with cunt and similar, for many people north of London.
Also how come no mention of "fanny" or is that considered acceptable, or just not shocking for most on MN ?
I mentioned knob (and should add knobhead) because I remember being in an estate agent's office when one (female) member of staff using the phone in a quiet (though not empty, there was a couple looking at brochures as well as myself, and 2 staff present) day told her friend how 'he was such a knobhead' and I was a teeny bit surprised she would say it in public earshot.
Someone mentioned tosser, but how does that rank against sod (which I don't think has been mentioned). Now in some circles 'you silly/daft sod' is really no worse than 'you fool', and I guess with all the bumsex threads on MN, it might have lost any shock value !