It is entirely untrue to claim, as Jeremy Corbyn[1] did, (with his habitual cavalier disregard for fact-checking or the truth in his quest to slander his political betters[2]) that Margaret Thatcher once said, “Anybody seen in a bus over the age of 30 has been a failure in life.” In fact, the originator of the quote was Loelia, the Duchess of Westminster, as a few seconds googling will tell you. However, the sentiment behind it is, although a generalisation, largely true.
The reason I mention this is because I have lately had to endure rubbing shoulders with the great unwashed, and there is no better way of demonstrating the stupidity, ignorance and utter selfishness of the Great British Public than to observe how they have behaved on my local buses through the pandemic.
The service provided by Stagecoach is, on the whole, of a fairly high standard. Buses are clean and punctual, and while the late evening and weekend services are sparser than one might like (the last bus passes through my village at 7.15pm) and many parts of East Sussex are not served at all, most of the larger centres are fairly well connected for a rural area. Some of the fares are quite high. A single fare from my village to the nearest town, 3 miles and 12 minutes away costs £4.20p, although the round trip would only be a few pence more. However, at £7.30, an unlimited day ticket covering a 50 mile round trip to my mother’s place in Hastings for instance, seem more reasonable. However, as I’m now a ‘Twirly’, (as in ‘Am I too early?’ for the 9:30am start of Senior Bus Passes) the fares no longer bother me. The drivers are usually polite and considerate, greeting passengers as they board and often sharing a friendly word with regulars, and patiently waiting for the elderly to get to and from their seats before moving off.
That’s a pleasant change from the surly, boorish, Transport For London drivers who seem to regard passengers as a detestable imposition and who take their churlishness out on the public by throwing them about as much as possible on their unreliable and filthy buses, in the hope of causing them injury. This is the usual consequence of the Leftie’s darlings, the state-run nationalised industries run for the benefit of their employees (or more accurately, the union grandees and their pawns in the Labour Party).
The Sussex passengers, however, while mostly as agreeable as the employees, do include a large number of all that is most depressing and aggravating of humanity. It’s rare to be on a bus when several passengers are not wearing masks. Lately, that contingent seems to be a substantial proportion, approaching a majority. Then we have the fuckwits who, having boarded the bus wearing a mask then feel that their duty has been done and proceed to remove it; or those who board without one only to put it on after they have walked the length of the bus, presumably to make sure they have shared their filthy bodily fluids with all the other passengers first. Another type of selfish cunt are those who, despite having a year to learn, still haven’t mastered the technique and wear a mask under their nose; honestly, I could train a mollusc to wear a mask properly in that time.
On a recent journey, an elderly man decided to sit in the row in front of me with his mask beneath his nose. A grossly obese young woman came and sat across the aisle from me and proceeded to have a long conversation with him across me, a large part of which was congratulating him on being re-elected as a councillor. She was of course only a couple of feet from me and continued to talk loudly and incessantly for 30 minutes, thereby breaking just about all the social distancing and hygiene rules we have all been urged to follow for over a year. It is almost needless to say this pair were Lefties, who will no doubt continue to tell themselves, their friends and just about everyone else, willing to listen or not, just what wonderful, socially responsible and rather special people they are.
Another ludicrously misattributed quote is supposedly by Winston Churchill, and goes as follows; ‘If you’re not a socialist when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.’ and this self-satisfied couple illustrated the truth of that aphorism perfectly. Again, the sentiment behind it is, although a generalisation, largely true.
Thatcher may not have made the quote about the man on the Clapham omnibus, but my experience of that portion of humanity which travels on public transport is that a great many of them are truly failures, not in what they earn or own, but in becoming decent human beings worthy of respect and a place in society.
[1] https://twitter.com/tribunemagazine/status/1121539549862289410
[2] She won 3 General Elections with huge majorities. He lost the only one he contested, earning his party their worst share of the vote for 74 years!