Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Stranded on the M25

I'm in Norwich at the moment, having just attended a funeral. Three and a half hours it took to get here... I was stuck on the M25 in the slow lane when I noticed a woman in the fast lane who had steam coming out of the back of her MG. She got out to look at it, leaving her elderly mother looking rather fearful but not a single person near her made any effort to go and help her. So I got out of my car, crossed two lanes of traffic and pushed her car onto the hard shoulder for her. Again, no one else bothered to get out to help. In fact, they appeared consdierably angry that I had left my car and were trying to manoeuvre round it. What has happened to the British public? At least one mother brought her son up to know when to come to someone's rescue. I feel very angry about it!

I gather Ming has appointed some more teenagers to his team. Anyone would think he was getting a bit paranoid about his age! More on that later.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yellow Peril have a witty take on the Lib Dem reshuffle: http:www.fourthterm.net/plog

Anonymous said...

Sarah Teather to education.....is he mad?! She has to be our worst ever front bencher...from competent Ed Davey to someone who, from my experience, nobody likes. Jo Swinson is bright, young and well educated, as is Goldsworthy. But when he could have given education to Andrew George, Davey, Swinson, Willis, Burstow or anyone else...he made a bad choice for our party. Shame on you Ming.

Raw Carrot said...

As I understand things you went against Police recommendations: they suggest you stay in your vehicle at all time and never attempt to cross a motorway. Your fixed penalty notice is in the mail...

Iain Dale said...

Tim, I couldn't possibly comment!
Raw, I assume you're being funny! You;d have left a damsel in distress, would you?!

Anonymous said...

Serious point Iain - I was with a very visibly octogenarian on a Wimbledon-bound District Line train two nights ago. Now, this chap is very visibly an octogenarian, getting a bit limp-y when he walks etc. None of the eight, healthy, obviously wealthy, bourgeois 20- and 30-somethings he was standing next to offered him their seat. Nor did any of them budge when I asked was anyone prepared to get up and offer an elderly person a seat. It was only when I started being very rude about them all in a very public way that one of them discovered they had functioning legs.

I wonder what sort of society they plan on bringing their children up in? I suppose they'll f--- off to some village in Dorset and chaperone their children everywhere by SUV come that point in their lives, where they can be abusive towards people like Iain who delay their journey by 0.01 microseconds to help someone else.

I haven't been as angry about anything in a long time, certainly not the soap opera at Westminster.

Niles said...

What a horrid story about people not helping out :(

I was extremely pleased when I broke down on a hill a week or two ago that several people helped me push the smouldering wreck of my car out of the way of rush hour traffic.

Iain Dale said...

Niles, yes, I read about your experience. Maybe that was what inspired me to help out the lady!