One of our political leaders was on a train to Manchester this afternoon. The entire coach was subjected to someone playing 'gangsta rap' on a mobile phone. The political 'leader' in question tried to pretend it wasn't happening and rather than asking the miscreant to tone it down just shook his head and tutted.
I wonder if you can guess which party leader this is.
Clue: What is it about political leaders and unwanted phone calls? :)
59 comments:
It was a smart decision from Clegg.
In New Labour's New Britain, if you were to ask a ragamuffin such as the one in your tale to 'tone it down' you'd be the latest in knife crime statistics!
So you really expect Nick Clegg to get up and go and ask someone to turn down their mobile phone? He's not some kind of fishwife.
Word verification grycidk. No comment, just wanted to go fnarr fnarr.
I got fohqpak
snurk snurk
If someone was playing "gangsta rap" was this political "leader" therefore travelling in Standard Class, rather than first class?
In which case this is more than the other two political "leaders" do.
This cheap shot is unworthy of you Iain.
Would you truthfully have done anything different, Iain?
Being honest I wouldn't have even dared shake my head and tut. I'd have just pretended, like 99.9% of other people, that it just wasnt happening.
If DC or DD are spotted ignoring someone who is being a nusance, will you also blog about that?
Why didn't you ask them to turn their music down Iain.
Improvement begins at home.
And? So what?
I guess you would be MR BIG GUY and risk your life over some music?
doh.
Iain doesn't allow rap music in his new Audi! so he has no need for the train.
Iain, Is this some kind of trailer for ian Hislop's programme this evening on BBC4 at 9pm??
Speaking personally I would have popped a cap in the motherfuckers ass!
If he wants to be a 'leader', he could have shown some 'leadership' and encouraged several of his co-passengers to assist in stopping the bloody row. Or perhaps stared a very loud sing song.
If people do that I ask them to turn the music down as I have a headache.
If they ignore that I will start an open debate and encourage tutting. This usually gets people to stop it!
Word of warning only do this on long distance trains. Don't do it on local, tube or buses! You will get your head kicked in! It was probably just a student - rather than a crack head!
Iain,
The rather annoying thing is that in Britain today, there are many attending the funerals of those loved ones who asked someone to turn down their music, or stop pissing on their car, or stop throwing chips at their girlfriend on a bus, or refused to give someone a cigarette on demand (just today actually, see BBC, he was sentenced to 18 months, both his father AND brother are already in prison for two completely seperate murders)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/7648394.stm,
or "looked at someone funny" or were in the wrong place at the wrong time or someone who should be in a nut house didn't take their medication.
I realise that you travel by cab a lot on your wa to dinner parties, but for the rest of us, the streets are a very mean place.
Had this been on a Tube in London, he could have arranged for Metropolitan Police terminators to pump seven bullets into his face from point-blank range. That would have shown him!
Unfortunately, this kind of let-it-be, don't-rock-the-boat behaviour is exactly what we've come to expect of this pathetic, lacklustre Labour so-called "government".
Fortunately, with every drip, drip, drip of stories like this, the more the British people thirst for the kind of Prime Minister who would have marched up to the man and demanded he turned the music down.
I can think of one man like that. David Cameron.
I sincerely doubt if Cameron or Brown would have done any different Iain.They may have got their bodyguards to ask, I suppose.
Frankly I doubt if you would have acted any differently yourself, so climb down off your high horse before you get a nosebleed.
It seems it's the fashion now to play your music out loud on buses, trains etc, for the benefit of the whole carriage whether they like it or not. In t'olden days the worst you had to put up with was a tinny walkman sound.
John Bull – you must surely be an elaborate trolling device set up by Derek Draper to make Conservatives look like credulous halfwits. SURELY?
"John Bull – you must surely be an elaborate trolling device set up by Derek Draper to make Conservatives look like credulous halfwits. SURELY?"
No, he's just an irritating twat who thinks he's funny.
Iain;for shame
Don't forget the last time you tried to make cheap political points against a Lib Dem you turned a marginal into a landslide for them!
You really were the best asset the LibDems had in North Norfolk, they wouldn't have won without you!
That should be scooter*
Off topic
I wonder if the EU tells Ireland off for its action concerning bank deposits that the NO vote will stiffen?
This person is fully entitled to play his music. Gansta-rap is far more relevant and suited t the Fuhrer's modern Britain than Beethoven or any other dead white male composer. Even suggesting that he turn the music down is implicit criticism of gansta-rap and therefore racist behaviour.
This poor man was no doubt psychologically scarred by the tutting and fierce looks he would have received from other passengers. As a result of the stress caused by this intolerant and discriminatory behaviour, he will probably be unable to hold down a job and be condemned, through no fault of his own, to a life on benefit. Shame on you Iain!
Disgruntled, Middle England said...
you joke, but ... I saw exactly that happen on the tube train coming home from work - the chap on the receiving end wasn't badly hurt luckily
... but to be stabbed for saying "please can you turn that off, it's really annoying"
I would love to see Cameron tackle a "youth". I would even buy a sky tv box to see it televised.
I don't blame Clegg - a typical human response. Oh maybe you are the only one allowed to be "human" these days Iain.
In todays climate it is not just the fear of physical attack with any attempt at self defence likely to lead to prosecusion, though not for political leaders, just the rest of us, but also the risk for public figures of being accused of racism for suggesting that very loud ganstar rap 'music' is not something that everybody want's to listen to. Even if the person playing the 'music' was white and British the extreamist in his party, the very people that would crusify a whit man for calling a woman a 'hoe' would try to oust him just for not liking the noise.
Any liberal leader
OH,
Who was it...oh yes, "johnb", the sort who thinks being punched in the head is "ok" and low risk, including the risk of falling and cracking one's bonce on the kerb.
We need a return to felony murder. We need sentencing to not consider the lack of prison spaces. We need such people considered for a mental health review.
You punch someone in such a way you should be sectioned.
"If someone was playing "gangsta rap" was this political "leader" therefore travelling in Standard Class, rather than first class?"
I certainly wont be voting for him then, tight fisted basta*d
There's a very simple way of combatting this, I did it on a trip to Manchester earlier this year.
Two early twenty-something guys decided to play music out of their phone. Everyone ignored them, silently fuming and tutting. I was sitting behind them and couldn't resist trying to use my intelligence to stop them.
I decided to impair their enjoyment of their music, and get them to turn the music off themselves without me having to confront them.
I got my phone out and played the "Tragedy" bit of the Bee Gees song every 15 seconds or so, over and over again. I had it on the MP3 bit of the phone (don't ask).
This put them in a quandary. They couldn't say "Look mate, turn your Bee Ges crap off, we want to listen to 50 Cent", because that's not cool - they want to play music, not stop others playing it.
Also, if anyone else in the carriage had said to me "Look, stop that", I could have said to the boys 'Sorry chaps, this guy wants us to turn our music off', so it wouldn't have been targeted at them, per se.
In the end, after about two minutes of me playing the Bee Gees, randomly, in shirt bursts and quite loudly, they gave up, turned their music off and went to sleep for the rest of the journey as did I.
Try it. But make sure your music is cheesy, uncool and annoying. Maybe the Birdie Song, Crazy Frog, something by Westlife, that kind of thing.
You can bet that had Clegg asked the person to turn off the music he would have been met by a terse "F**k Off" response or worse and it is an absolute certainty that no-one else would have done anything about it either and the LibDems could very well have been holding a leadership election and you only have to remember what happened to the Head of Barclays Wealth in Norwich who intervened to understand why people keep their heads down and affect to ignore the "yobbish behaviour"
Welcome to the "broken society" of Great Britain 2008
You won't for someone who travels standard class? Very strange.
Its interesting that someone who, as a party leader, wants to tell us how to live is unable or unwilling to ask someone to turn their music down . Is this a sign that they find the public scary in general or merely that music-playing individual in particular, and if so, why?
The point, perhaps, is that our society has deteriorated to such an extent that people ignore trouble. If you recall many many cowboy films, the point is always that its not just the Sherrif - you need every cotton-pickin guy in the town to stand up to the " bullies". Which, if groups of us did ,not only would we feel safer, but, as with all bullies, they would back down.
Except we'd be liable to be arrested for scaring someone.
Not exactly libertarian asking someone to turn off their music of choice.
Is this Germany in the 1930's when Beat music was banned and subject to socially acceptable intimidation?
old holborn / martin / et al - If David Cameron made it a policy that those working on trains / buses would back us up when complaining about loud music, and if they didn't cooperate, the staff would 'get mediaeval on yo ass', and if that didn't work tazer the f**kers he would be in Downing Street quicker than you could say 'gangsta crap'..
This is one of the most annoying things about Britain today, and has the 'biggest bang for the buck' in terms of 'cost of solution, benefit to the individual..'
If we don't act soon on this, and thick bastards using loud profane language on public transport, then the genie will be out of the bottle for good..
splashitallover - that is the second cleverest strategy for dealing with this problem that I've ever come across - the first was someone who somehow managed to cut the cable to the headphones while the person was dozing with his eyes closed..
In a sense, part of the problem is that since some companies operate a 'mobile free quiet zone', many feel that this gives them carte blanche to be completely lacking in manners and totally antisocial wankers playing music and shouting to their hearts content with zero concern or consideration for their fellow passengers.. But then if the little shits were taught at school that there were no boundaries and that however badly they behaved, there simply would not be 'punishment that fitted the crime', then I suspect the horse has long since bolted, and we are merely trying to buy a padlock..
Oh? Isn't john bull just being sardonic then?
Iain,
Since I live in London I use public transport a great deal. However weird I find the sort of music youngsters play I don't find it particularly annoying and I'm quite happy to live and let live. What really makes me angry is the well suited, not poor, middle aged character treating his/her seat as an extension of his/her office and boring the rest of us rigid with long, pompous telephone conversations conducted at max volume. I tend to glare and move away. Sometimes I even manage to provoke an embarrassed blush which is satisfying.
To answer the original query, it was Stevie Wonder, of the twice as experienced as Jonah Broon party.
STB.
(collects coat, moves ninja like towards door...).
on the tube two months ago- idiot playing his gansta, no reaction, turned it up, stared at everybody to say what are you going to do about it, no reaction, when he go off, he turned to the carriage,' nuffink, what does it take for you f--kers to fight me'.
I would have taken the little sh1t on as would have a couple of others, but I am not allowed to carry weaponry for self protection, and he was as high as a kite and in my opinion was armed.
I have been in some hairy parts of the world where life is cheap, but in that hole in the ground in Londonstan, cowardice was definately the better part of being stuck with a blade, or getting arrested for giving him a good hiding.
Hope this isn't a non-sequitur BUT I confronted some locals youths outside my apartment block (SE London, reasonably pleasant area) last Saturday night who were deliberately damaging the hedge in our garden. I asked them to stop and was told, No, they would carry on.
Applying further pressure, they then called for back up and some of their mates turned up with two dogs, one of which was a pitbull and, quite bizarrely, the other was a little dog that looked as harmless as Gio (yes, I do read this blog regularly....)
My neighbour and I decided to evacuate as there were now around 12 of them against 2 of us - even though it is our own garden that we were asking them to leave.
I would NEVER confront yobs again, unless a person was being attacked. I am ashamed of my cowardice but it is simply not worth getting stabbed over property. They won't listen to what you tell them so you are wasting your breathe. Also, as the law stands, it is very difficult to use physical force without the risk of being arrested and charged with assault. As a City professional, I cannot risk having a criminal record.
I have often read of others confronting "youths" but this is the first major incident I have been involved in myself. The whole experience has just left me with total despair about the future of our society. I now feel that I am living in a sort of "wild west" in South East London. You cannot stand up for yourself because a) you do not know whether these people are carrying a knife and/or b) the next time you see them, they might do you in in the street.
Oh, and for those reading this who say I should have called the police - one of my neighbours did - they showed up 2 1/2 hours later.......no comment required.
All well and good but can someone without the courage to ask someone to turn the music down possibly have the courage and wherewithal to create an environment in our society where people don't feel uncomfortable addressing similar social aberrations?
I've done that before: sat in a train carriage listening to someone's annoying tinny bassy music blaring at everyone, but deciding that the hassle and risk of confronting the lil bastard was worse than just putting up with it. I remember feeling a fair bit guilty for not quite being brave enough to do anything about it (and for being part of a carriage-load of sheep who just sat there doing nothing). But as previous commenters have said, with everything you see on the news, it's easy to get scared, and decide not to take the risk.
We were in London for the proms just recently and my husband got jumped on by a loony out for the day. He didn't ask for money, nothing, just jumped on his back and tried to punch him in the head!He missed. ok it was funny afterwards, but it could have turned out to be very serious...there is a deep malaise at the heart of British society when most of us would turn away from someone in distress because its too dangerous to go and help.
I don't travel on public tranport anymore.
When enough people won't travel on public transport anymore "something" will be done
Larger subsidies for Public Transport from taxpayers money.
So the scrotes can play their gangsta rap as loud as they want on an empty train.
£3. The best £3 you will ever spend
http://www.security-discount.com/index.php/cat/c2_Peppersprays.html
Not even a "cheap shot", just stupid really. Just because he's leader of a political party you'd expect him to challenge a youth on a train for being a bit too noisy? In "New Labour's Britain" that could get you killed tbf.
There is a lot of the brown stuff that can be thrown in Clegg's general direction - this is not one of them.
Unless Iain goes on a train or bus and confronts a yob alone, he has no right to preach.
I'm sorry don't think any of this is true. How can Iain's witness know what the 'political leader' was thinking. Why didn't the witness ask the man to turn it down.
When Ashdown took on the yobs in Yeovil they torched his car and threatened his family.
Iain,
We need to discuss this further. The whole cowardice thing.
I'll meet you outside Stockwell Tube at midnight. Bring your laptop.
I remember the good old days, when there were things called "conductors" who were there to police the train not simply to punch a hole in one's ticket? Why does such a person not exist now? Surely it should be the job of the train company, not commuters, to deal with anti-social passengers and throw them off the train if necessary.
Alternatively, instead of the old smoking carriages, we could have anti-social behaviour carriages and the annoying buggers could cause as much trouble as they wanted?
Anonymous 10.21. I have actually done this on three occasions which come to mind. Once at a West Ham match when I confronted someone shouting racist abuse, once when someone in a car chucked some rubbish out and I picked it up and handed it back to the person through the window, and once when I did exactly what Nick Clegg failed to do and asked a youth to turn down the music on his iPod.
An utterly crap post Iain ... sort of thing I'd expect Guido to post.
To the guy who recommended the Bee Gees ... classic FM has a much quicker effect.
When I used to live on the 10th floor of a block of flats in Salford the annoying drunkard above used to play Bob Marley extremely loudly until ... who knows til when? I used to drift off at about 3a.m. After one particularly bad evening I went upstairs the next day with a collection of classical CD's and asked if he would play them for me as his hifi was obviously much better than mine. It kept him quiet for a few days!
Just a thought Iain, Splashitallover suggested a kind of duelling mp3 player contest whereby one confronts these anti social whatsits with even worse antisocial whatsit.
Perhaps you could research and publish a list of the 100 most effective tracks (real or imagined) that would lead to a shamefaced turning off of Gangsta Rap (whatever that might be).
I'd like to start the ball rolling by suggesting "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" (whoever Bubbles might be) by The Blue Diamonds.
Iain,
You are the Tories number 1 blogger.
What did you do?
Oh yes, you called the Clegg a coward, not personally, of course, to his face, just on the internet, after the event, yet did nothing yourself.
Hmmm.
Please, I like you. Don't give me any more reasons to despise you
Knife crime
ask Boris how well he is doing
he said he would solve it if elected
stupid man
I sat at the back of a London bus in Livingstone days and suffered four 14 year old kids taking the mickey out of me. My instinct was to remonstrate with them but I looked around at my fellow passengers on this crowded bus and they were all studiously looking out of the windows. Had I taken on these four yobs I would have been on my own. So I kept quiet, they got away with it and went off to do it again I suppose. I kept my teeth but not my equanimity.
When I worked in London I had to eject one of these animals from a carriage.
People get too hung up about hoodies and knives.
Confront them face to face. They invariably back down.
How do you know Clegg 'tried to pretend it wasn't happening'. Can you read minds?
Because a friend of mine was on the train and saw it all.
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