Читать книгу Blaikie’s Guide to Modern Manners - Thomas Blaikie - Страница 10

Some years ago, as an experiment for a TV programme, researchers trawled a railway carriage asking if they could have people’s seats. In the majority of cases the answer was yes, sometimes even though there were empty seats all around. This was supposed to prove the innate tendency of human beings to obey orders. ‘I wish I’d known when I was younger,’ says Mrs Gibbs. ‘It’s all right now that I’m unmistakably ancient, but when I was in my late sixties and we lived in London, I’d be desperate for a seat sometimes, struggling back from John Lewis with ten new pillows.’ But she didn’t like to ask – in fact, she wanted to be offered – and so she didn’t get one. The same thing happens to others, most notably pregnant women. In this case would-be givers-up of seats dread making a mistake – offering a seat to someone who’s just a bit stout. Transport for London have identified this as a serious problem and plan to issue pregnant women with badges saying ‘Baby on Board’ – but not everybody is so keen on this idea. On the TV news they tried out the badges and found they worked a treat.

By and large people who might give up their seats seem to be paralysed with embarrassment.

There is also the vexed question of seated children. The thinking today is that they are to remain enthroned at all costs. Is this right? ‘It’s annoying when some little tot’s got a seat and I have to stand,’ says Zoe. But can she be relied on, being generally anti-child?

 Some older people may not look it but they may still need your seat (if carrying a lot of shopping, generally appearing at the end of their tether etc.). Give it to them.

 Don’t let anxiety that they will feel insulted (‘Do I look that old?’) hold you back.

 If you think a woman might be pregnant, give her your seat. If you’ve made a mistake, it won’t matter. After all, she’ll never know why you gave up your seat, and if she’s got any sense she’ll be glad to get one even if slightly insulted.

 If you badly need a seat and nobody is offering, ask. Of course it would be nicer to be offered, but at least, if the results of that experiment are anything to go by, you’re quite certain of success.

 On the whole we should give up our seats more often.

Are children never to give up their seats on public transport? They should not be pitched out, old-style, just because they are children. But if an entire family is seated and an elderly person is standing, does it not make sense for one of the children to relinquish its seat? Being smaller and younger, are they not better suited to standing? Can’t very small children share? Isn’t this often what they are doing anyway? Or running around not even occupying ‘their’ seats?