In terms of other pains (not seat reservation issues this time) I had the misfortune to come across a rather unfortunate incident on a packed Southern service today where some sort of far-left activist decided to play a bonkers anti-government-conspiracy film at full volume to the rest of the carriage, largely on the supposed pretext that he wanted to let everyone in the coach know the message of freedom (blah, blah, blah).
Most of the passengers within earshot decided to inform the offending passenger that they most certainly didn't want to hear it. Some rather irritating and extremely cocky responses were given by said activist, resulting in escalated threats by other passengers to destroy the phone and such like. At this point, I had to intervene and prevent any violence by telling passengers rather forcibly to calm down and not risk breaking any laws, even if byelaws were breached. As luck had it, I was successful, but things did get very tense for a few moments. This may have been something to do with the fact that I was wearing orange hi-vis clothing.
Fortunately, despite the incredible rudeness of the passenger, the film finished and he stopped irritating people. He didn't look very smug after his mass telling-off, either.
I did suggest that someone should fetch the guard, but he was eight cars away and the passenger wasn't annoying people for all that long or leaving any evidence.
The irony was that the activist was using an iPhone, produced by Apple - a company known for its complete transparency. Ahem.
