Whatever you think of the London Lord Mayor’s politics (if you’re like me, you don’t have much of an opinion), he’s a great writer.
Earlier this week, Virgin Blue copped heat for its policy of forbidding male passengers from sitting next to unaccompanied children. Twitter and Facebook provided an ample platform for the predictable onslaught of reasoned objections and exaggerated outrage: Seat swap outcry moves Virgin to think again.
But nothing beats Boris Johnson’s foray into the debate six years ago:
Even as I write, I can imagine the lip-pursing of some of my lovely high-minded readers. How would you like it, they will say, if some weird chap was plonked next to your kids? And they are right that I would worry about some strange adult sitting next to my children, chiefly because I wouldn’t want the poor fellow to come to any harm.
There’s something almost Chestertonian in Johnson’s contribution, which is as common sensical as it is funny. Come off it, folks: how many pedophiles can there be?
How naive could the airhostess be? If children are travelling alone, it is understandable if the airline is cautious because they are responsible for the children. I do not mean keeping them safe from paedophiles, just generally safe. Don’t they check their list of passengers before taking any action? Speaking the truth, if I am on a long flight and I was flying alone, I definitely would not want to sit next to a child because children could be noisy and wriggley on flights and I like peace and quiet. I have had lots of long flights with my children when they were young and those flights were very tiring. So, who are these men who want to sit next to children? Is something wrong with them? Don’t they want to have a quiet moment?
Imagine my dismay when, after years of being a wife and mother, I managed to escape my kids for the first time in 15 years to attend a History Conference in Brisbane – only to have 2 unaccompanied kids sat down next to me on the plane! The even wanted me to buy them drinks!
I think it is only fair that all those blokes who regularly escape their kids by going on business trips should carry their share of the stress.
Ha ha. If Florence and Clara fit the archetype, Boris Johnson speaks in terms which are apparently universal to parenthood!