The Corridor

Recent Posts

PLEASE NOTE The Corridor is moving grounds at the moment. This is the old site, and comments have been disabled. Check back tomorrow and we should be safely ensconced at our new home


The fun police

By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November Leave a comment on this post

A couple of weeks ago I was midway through a big drinking session with my fellow ale-junky Keats. On the Tube, full of the joys of beer, we were standing there with our feet at 90 degrees, in a sort of Laurel’n'Hardy act of stupidity - only the kind of thing you can do when you’ve had a few, and we found the whole thing hilarious. Opposite us was a massive, rotund underground worker - bored, intent on engaging us in conversation - who said “Tsk. Yeah. Not allowed to laugh darn ‘ere no more”. And he’s right. The Tube is an odd second world, where making eye contact is tantamount to asking someone to strip naked and sing like a budgie. Talking to one another, let alone laughing, is not on. It’s not what we do. Mr Rotund was right; here we were, laughing our heads off and receiving scornful glares from scared commuters. “Why are they laughing and talking? Haven’t they read the Tube Etiquette?”

Anyway, this has very little to do with anything. But it’s one aspect of Britain I hate; there is an underlying feeling of fear in London that anyone you talk to will carry a knife and plunge it into your chest. Another instance last week. I’d been to O’Neils by Kings Cross station and was walking back to the tube when a normalish-looking person stopped the lady in front of me to ask for directions. She didn’t stop her frenetic pace, quickening her stride if anything, and the bloke gave up. He stood there aghast, arms outstretched! “You lost?” I asked, and he was. He was just wondering where the British Library was, so I pointed him in the right direction and off he went. I appreciate women might feel more vulnerable in the city than men - and that’s not sexist, even if you think it is - but she was nothing more than plain rude. And this isn’t me being massively naive; I just cannot accept that everyone is a terrorist and is out there to kill me.

Right, now then. Back to cricket. Another crap aspect of Britain is the nanny state and Martin Johnson has found plenty of evidence that Australia are following America’s lead and wrapping the entire country in cotton wool, in a great piece at the Telegraph.

Everywhere you go in Australia, you’re reminded of the American way of treating its inhabitants as though they’re mentally retarded, such as warning consumers of salted peanuts that the packet may contain nut products, or advising purchasers of household bleach that once the bottle is empty it should “not be used as a beverage container”.

[…]

So what can we say about the prospect of an England victory? Well, for one thing their chances are not to be sneezed at. But even more in their favour is the fact that Australia’s cricketers are dangerously close to breaching their government’s own zero-tolerance policy (announced over the public address system before each day’s play) forbidding anyone from holding up anyone else to ridicule, contempt or humiliation.

So if Australia go 2-0 ahead here, their players will all be removed from the premises, ordered to do community service for the rest of the series, and the Ashes – as compensation for the severe hurt to their feelings - will be formally awarded to England.

A positive for England, then…

Tags: , , , , , , , , |

2 Responses to “The fun police”

  • Scott wrote:
    November 30th, 2006 at 10.20 am

    I wouldn’t take Martin Johnson’s homily too much to heart. We ARE smothered by rules and regulations, but for the most part, we can just ignore them and no-one gives a rats arse. The excess of warning signs is just to cover one’s arse with the lawyers.

    Mind you I was curious about your story about the Tube. Adelaide’s public transport system has a similar sort of ‘conduct code’ that precludes talking to other people. Since I’m a antisocial bastard at the best of times, this suits me fine.

  • Srivaths wrote:
    December 1st, 2006 at 4.33 pm

    As someone new to London I couldn’t help but notice the difference between Saturday nights and normal weeknights. On saturday everyone’s drunk and the tube is really noisy.

    Has sociability on the tube decreased after 9/11 and the tube bombings?


    • « An odd couple: Colville and Willis | Main | Desert cricket »