![\"20161002-tubechat\"](\"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/20161002-TubeChat-218x300.jpg\")
(Borrowed from the BBC’s website.)<\/p><\/div>\n
If you\u2019ve ever travelled on the London Underground, you\u2019ll know the issue. Commuters studiously avoid making eye contact let alone conversation. Any communication (such as \u201cthat seat is reserved for disabled people\u201d) that can be mimed is<\/em> mimed. From my limited experience elsewhere in the world, commuters do tend to keep to themselves, but for some reason it seems worse in London.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like the trains are tumbrels carrying the condemned to the guillotine. There\u2019s the reluctant shuffle towards the doors; not a happy face on board; no sound of people laughing and joking. Then there\u2019s the jostling and abuse as the victims exit the train and make their way through the crowds. Any conversation that does take place on board would probably be along the lines of, \u201cWhat does your day look like today?\u201d \u201cOh\u20149:30, get head chopped off; after that, I\u2019m free.\u201d<\/p>\n Enter Jonathan Dunne and his \u201cTube chat?\u201d badges. The card accompanying the badge encourages people to wear the badge to indicate that they\u2019re open to having a chat with their fellow passengers, and points out that \u201cyou\u2019ll benefit from a daily chat.\u201d<\/p>\n He might as well have suggested that commuters leap up and down and wave their knickers in the air<\/a>. Some took to Twitter, using words like \u201cmisanthropy\u201d in proud praise of London commuters. And a rival group launched its own campaign, handing out similarly-designed badges, but with the words \u201cDon\u2019t even think about talking to me!\u201d and the accompanying card encouraging people to wear the badge to let others know that \u201cyou\u2019d rather drink a pint of bleach than talk with them!\u201d<\/p>\n Now that\u2019s fightin\u2019 talk! The situation requires a Mick \u201cCrocodile\u201d Dundee character to ride the Underground with a gallon of bleach, giving people a choice between a chinwag and a drop of the hard (to swallow) stuff.<\/p>\n The badges are threatening to become a bit of a meme: people are designing their own with phrases such as \u201cAsk me about Article 50\u201d and \u201cDon\u2019t you f*****g dare\u201d. Gosh how I miss the non-stop flow of intellectual London wit!<\/p>\n I doubt that the \u201cTube chat?\u201d campaign will succeed. Last time I travelled on the Underground (admittedly a while ago now), the noise inside the moving train (especially when the windows were open) was so loud that the only way to communicate was by exchanging written notes. Try that, and anti-chat campaigners would likely use the pins on their badges as weapons.<\/p>\n Either that or they\u2019d do the tube train equivalent of crossing to the other side of the street. I\u2019m not sure what that would be, but I am<\/em> sure that London commuters being the misanthropes that some claim they are, and resourceful to boot, they\u2019d come up with something<\/em>.<\/p>\n Maybe it will take a 1940-style Blitz to get people talking on the Underground. What would the \u201canti\u201d badges say then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Londoner of American extraction has launched an attempt to get London commuters talking to each other. If you\u2019ve ever travelled on the London Underground, you\u2019ll know the issue. Commuters studiously avoid making eye contact let alone conversation. Any communication (such as \u201cthat seat is reserved for disabled people\u201d) that can be mimed is mimed. From my limited experience elsewhere… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[490],"tags":[201,664,204,203,202],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-commentaries","tag-tube_chat","tag-500words","tag-misanthropy","tag-tumbrel","tag-underground"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/reggothard.com\/kelvin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}