Traingate - First Class fuss

The whole ‘traingate’ fiasco actually makes me genuinely pity George Osborne. He must have thought he had it bad when 48 % of the public wanted him removed in a cabinet reshuffle (making him even less popular than Nick Clegg). He must have thought it was a notable low when thousands booed him at the Paralympics. In fact, it must have been pretty atrocious ever since his parents were told by doctors there is no cure for a complete lack of empathy. Still, he never could have thought it come to this, no one could ever conceive that their life could hit the depths it did that ominous day en route to Euston: a stranger high fived a train inspector for giving him a ticket.

For those unaware of this debacle, let me recite an admittedly dramatized version of the story as spun by the journalists the next day. George Osborne did not deign to arrive for his prebooked train, presuming that he could worm his way onto any train he wanted with any ticket and a sickly smile. Not wishing to waste his gaze on the dirty common folk, he skulked into First Class on the train of his

I’d like everyone to imagine that this exact situation happened to Stephen Fry.

choosing and sent off a faceless minion off to inform the blue-collars what had been decided. However, one hero took a stand and demanded that an appropriate fee (costing 0.0005x the price of putting a child through Eton). After an argument, the villain of the piece admitted defeat, coughed up, and the hero was justly rewarded (with a high five) for ensuring equality for all.

Looking at this from an objective point of view is admittedly difficult with the situation revolving around someone so thoroughly unlikable, so I’d like everyone to imagine that this exact situation happened to Stephen Fry.

Due to circumstances completely outside his control, Stephen had to board a later train and being an affable chap, he sent a co-worker/friend (presumably Alan Davies) to go and let the conductor know that he was awfully sorry but his ticket wasn’t technically valid. With all the dastardly work that had piled around him, Stephen took the opportunity to find a table and some peace and quiet in first class before setting about reading through his script of Othello. When the inspector came, Alan went and sorted it out (which cost £160! The cheek of rail companies these days!) while Stephen carried on reciting, none the wiser.

In this situation, you can see that everything could have been handled better, but Fry was certainly not to blame and it would likely lead to a witty tweet by the man himself rather than firestorm of media driven hate that came down around Osborne. As such, I honestly don’t care that he wanted to use first class (I prefer it - there’s much more legroom and ne’er a screaming child). As such, we shouldn’t hold this against Osborne, particularly when there’s so much legitimate stuff he’s done wrong.