# Tube 'Please offer me a seat' badges for hidden disabilities



## Northerner (Aug 31, 2016)

People with hidden health conditions are being offered "Please offer me a seat" badges in a bid to help ease their suffering on London transport.

The Transport for London (TfL) trial follows the success of its "Baby on board" badge for pregnant women.

TfL is recruiting 1,000 people to start wearing the blue badges from 12 September.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he hoped they would "give confidence" to people who find standing difficult.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37222554

Interesting to see how this goes. I wonder if some people would rather not mark themselves out as potentially vulnerable? I suppose you don't _have_ to wear the badge, in that case.


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## Stitch147 (Aug 31, 2016)

I think the baby on board badges are great and have been a great success. However........... I believe that these new badges could be open for abuse by people that dont necessarily need a seat for disability reasons. Hopefully they wont get abused and will only be given to people with a genuine need but how will the issuing of them be vetted. As yet there is no information about how these badges will be issued (just had a check on our internal intranet system). Hopefully I will be proved wrong and they are issued wisely.


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## Diabeticliberty (Aug 31, 2016)

I would personally offer my seat up to anyone showing any signs of distress whatsoever, regardless of whether they had a badge or not. Surely I cannot be unique in this? Is it not just common deceny to try to extend a helping hand to anybody around us in need. Do we really need badges for this?


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## Stitch147 (Aug 31, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> I would personally offer my seat up to anyone showing any signs of distress whatsoever, regardless of whether they had a badge or not. Surely I cannot be unique in this? Is it not just common deceny to try to extend a helping hand to anybody around us in need. Do we really need badges for this?



I agree with you but unfortunately having worked for London Underground for 18 years and travelling on the system 5 days a week you regularly see people pretending to be asleep, heads down in papers/books in order to avoid seeing things around them.


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## Northerner (Aug 31, 2016)

Personally, I only sit if there are plenty of seats as I'm perfectly capable of standing, but I only travel on the Tube once in a while, not every day. As you say Stitch, it depends on how they get issued as I also saw that they might be open to abuse. I suppose it's also instructive that people with 'invisible' disabilities often come in for abuse when using blue badge parking, so there may be a general scepticism from some sections of the public who are unable to understand the concept of _invisible_ illness


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## Diabeticliberty (Aug 31, 2016)

Stitch147 said:


> I agree with you but unfortunately having worked for London Underground for 18 years and travelling on the system 5 days a week you regularly see people pretending to be asleep, heads down in papers/books in order to avoid seeing things around them.




As a race I am very sorry to have to admit that people never seem to fail to disappoint me. This answer kind of sums it up for me. I really do not understand how it can be that if I am able to stand how I can expect to sit if other people actually need to. Pretending to be asleep or pretending to read a book would fail to ease the extreme discomfort my own conscience cause me by sitting when I should be stood up


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## Martin Canty (Aug 31, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> I would personally offer my seat up to anyone showing any signs of distress whatsoever, regardless of whether they had a badge or not. Surely I cannot be unique in this? Is it not just common deceny to try to extend a helping hand to anybody around us in need. Do we really need badges for this?


I guess it's the way we were raised, common decency & all that.... When I lived in the UK I would always give up my seat to a needy person, I still open doors for people & say please & thank you


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

Badges won't help. With the aid of most of the press, disabled people are characterised as spongers and scroungers, especially  if you don't look disabled. More likely to be abused than offered a seat, I fear.

It's interesting when I'm using the electric wheelchair how many people look away or avoid eye contact. (Not here on the island, I might say). If I can become invisible, what hope is there for people with badges on the tube?


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## Andy HB (Sep 1, 2016)

Maybe Jeremy Corbyn should wear one? His hidden disability being that he can't see empty seats on trains (allegedly).


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## KookyCat (Sep 1, 2016)

You can spot the folk who won't give up a seat a mile off, eyes closed, earphones in, they're my favourites   It'll be interesting to see what happens.  I'd be a case in point by the way, I can't stand on a moving vehicle without significant support, my joints don't lock in place so unless I'm supported by a wall or can hold on to something with both hands the momentum is too much for me and down I go.  I look perfectly capable though, and I can walk absolutely fine on land (although you don't want to see me making my way down a train or bus aisle if it's still moving!).  When I commuted to work by train I had to get the earliest train so I could guarantee a spot to stand whilst supported, and once had a delightful row with a conductor who was trying to get me to stand in the middle of the aisle with nothing to hold on to.  I had to say no because we'd all have gone over like a mortifying chain of human dominoes.  I won't mention the subway in New York, except to say I'm too tall to stand, and I ended up on the floor with two New Yorkers who came down with me  when it screeched to a halt at a station....mortifying.


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## Diabeticliberty (Sep 1, 2016)

Andy HB said:


> Maybe Jeremy Corbyn should wear one? His hidden disability being that he can't see empty seats on trains (allegedly).




Apparently Corbyn's henchman the uberdelightful Mr. McDonnell now feels that Richard Branson should be stripped of his Knighthood for daring to point out that there were empty seats on the train (allegedly)


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

When I travel on Mr Bransons trains from Glasgow, the wheelchair space in first class is in the very furthest carriage from the station entrance. Doesn't bother me, because I use an electric wheelchair, but it would be a struggle for a self-propelled user, or someone pushing a wheelchair. The staff, I have to say, are excellent.

Just to show how people disregard disability needs, on the train by the wheelchair space is a clear area with a sign saying "please do not place luggage here to allow space for wheelchairs". I once travelled when someone with a huge suitcase had placed it so that it obscured the sign. Some people, eh?


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## Northerner (Sep 1, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> Apparently Corbyn's henchman the uberdelightful Mr. McDonnell now feels that Richard Branson should be stripped of his Knighthood for daring to point out that there were empty seats on the train (allegedly)


I've travelled inter city quite often and trains can get very full. The point about seats with 'reserved' labels is this: they are reserved, when you first get on the train you don't know if the seats will be taken or not, so you walk down until you find a free, unreserved seat - you won't know if you've found one sometimes until you have gone the length of the train. If you still haven't found an unreserved seat then you might go all the way back up the train to see if any of the 'reserved' seats are still free. Or you decide to wait until the next station and hope someone will get off. Corbyn got a seat eventually because the train manager moved a family to First Class, freeing up some seats (Corbyn turned down the offer of FC seats for himself - the media would have loved him to have been 'upgraded' ), Corbyn expressed his appreciation of the efforts of the staff. The whole thing was a typical media 'Ah! Gotcha!' type story with little actual value to anyone. In fact, it's rather worked against Branson since many passengers have tweeted pictures of his many jam-packed daily services up and down the country - the suggestion that Virgin trains are space and luxury personified is a myth which no-one who travels on them would recognise. Moreover, I have had reserved seats on Virgin seats but not got a seat because the reservations system wasn't working. Plus Branson may have broken the law by releasing the CCTV footage, contravening his own rules. The fact that Corbyn wants to renationalise the railways might have had something to do with it  

Have to say though, I thought it in poor taste when I saw someone being interviewed on C4 news about it all, where the person suggested Branson had 'fallen flat on his face' with a PR gaffe - given that he had, in fact, fallen flat on his face just a few hours earlier!


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## Marsbartoastie (Sep 1, 2016)

When busses had conductors there was a brilliant one on my local No12 route.  He helped people off and on, put their bags away for them, hung on to the pole at the back singing, and when people were getting on he shouted "under 30s...up the stairs".  This left plenty of room downstairs for older people, those with children and anyone with mobility problems.  Of course it didn't take account of  'invisible conditions', but it helped lots of people.  I miss bus conductors.


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## Diabeticliberty (Sep 1, 2016)

Alan you have missed a trick here completely. Does Saint Corbyn really need a train when he so obviously floats along on a cloud? God bless him


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## grovesy (Sep 1, 2016)

I have not travelled Inter City for a while but even back in the days of Nationalised Railway, the no seats was still a problem.


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> Alan you have missed a trick here completely. Does Saint Corbyn really need a train when he so obviously floats along on a cloud? God bless him


Give over, DL, he's the only politician solidly grounded in reality, it's  the rest of that lot at Westminster who float along in their bubble and stick their fingers in their ears.


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

grovesy said:


> I have not travelled Inter City for a while but even back in the days of Nationalised Railway, the no seats was still a problem.


You wouldn't try to catch a plane on the off chance there might be a spare seat. Pre booking a seat on an inter city train is not exactly rocket science, disabled or not. Virgin have a dedicated phone number for disabled travellers.


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## Stitch147 (Sep 1, 2016)

One of the girls that I work with asked me if I will be getting one of the badges, to which I replied "why? Im not disabled!!!" She said in case I feel funny when travelling!!! Errrr nope, still wont be getting one!


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## Diabeticliberty (Sep 1, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> Give over, DL, he's the only politician solidly grounded in reality, it's  the rest of that lot at Westminster who float along in their bubble and stick their fingers in their ears.




The official line of his own political party is to support a nuclear deterrent and offer full backing to a Trident replacement. The official line of his trade union brothers in the struggle against the evil capitalist dictator is the same . He orchestrated a 'free vote' for his own politicians in order to enable him to vote against his own party line. I personally view this as inherently stupid but to address your own issue if this is not Comrade Corbyn sticking his fingers in his own ears then I really don't know what is.


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## Marsbartoastie (Sep 1, 2016)

A good old singalong always helps bring people together.  Altogether now...

"Arise ye starvlings from your slumbers
Arise ye prisoners of want
For reason in revolt now thunders
And at last ends the age of cant
So away with all your superstition
Servile masses arise, arise
We'll change forthwith the old conditions
And spurn the dust to win the prize
So comrades come rally
And the last fight let us face
The Internationale unites the human race"

Up the workers!


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

Marsbartoastie said:


> "Arise ye starvlings from your slumbers
> Arise ye prisoners of want
> For reason in revolt now thunders
> And at last ends the age of cant
> ...


Stirs the blood, doesn't it? Alas, the days of revolution are gone, but we can only hope.


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## Marsbartoastie (Sep 1, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> Stirs the blood, doesn't it? Alas, the days of revolution are gone, but we can only hope.


Aye Mikey...we live in hope!


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## Northerner (Sep 1, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> The official line of his own political party is to support a nuclear deterrent and offer full backing to a Trident replacement. The official line of his trade union brothers in the struggle against the evil capitalist dictator is the same . He orchestrated a 'free vote' for his own politicians in order to enable him to vote against his own party line. I personally view this as inherently stupid but to address your own issue if this is not Comrade Corbyn sticking his fingers in his own ears then I really don't know what is.


The members oppose Trident, he listens to them. Really, it's a bit daft to compare Corbyn's views with past party policies since they are what have now changed. Things change. Labour lost the last two elections promoting those policies, time for new ones. The unions will change as long as those workers can be guaranteed jobs in other areas where their skills are needed - renewables or conventional armaments, they aren't only able to work with nuclear.


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## Diabeticliberty (Sep 1, 2016)

Northerner said:


> The members oppose Trident, he listens to them. Really, it's a bit daft to compare Corbyn's views with past party policies since they are what have now changed. Things change. Labour lost the last two elections promoting those policies, time for new ones. The unions will change as long as those workers can be guaranteed jobs in other areas where their skills are needed - renewables or conventional armaments, they aren't only able to work with nuclear.




I know that you don't want to read this but Labour in its current format will lose  the next 2 elections too. He is completely unelectable except to his 500,000 luvved up groupies. The poor misguided souls who mindlessly scream fervently every time he opens a can of Tizer do not represent the views of the vast majority of the voting population of this country. That is why he is about 10,000 years behind in every opinion poll since the one where Nikita Khrushchev won Strictly Come Dancing.


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## Marsbartoastie (Sep 1, 2016)

It's a process DL.  The party has to find its way...and that will take time.


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## Northerner (Sep 1, 2016)

Diabeticliberty said:


> I know that you don't want to read this but Labour in its current format will lose  the next 2 elections too. He is completely unelectable except to his 500,000 luvved up groupies. The poor misguided souls who mindlessly scream fervently every time he opens a can of Tizer do not represent the views of the vast majority of the voting population of this country. That is why he is about 10,000 years behind in every opinion poll since the one where Nikita Khrushchev won Strictly Come Dancing.


Current polls are meaningless, since the party has split itself rather than opposing the Tories at their weakest. This shows terrible judgement on behalf of those responsible, who also misjudged Corbyn himself. The funny thing about all this is that Corbyn the 'Unelectable' is proving that he is the most electable of the lot of them!  

Remember, conventional politicians 'missed' the fact that the Tories would win a slim majority, that the country would vote for Brexit and that Corbyn hadn't a hope of winning the leadership in 2015. Do you seriously think that we can continue with the same disastrous, destructive, divisive politics that have held sway since 1979, with massive inequality getting ever wider and a growing section of the population being barely able to afford food or shelter, and perhaps soon, health and social care of any sort? Times are changing and you have to start somewhere - I'd say 500k new people getting interested in politics is a good place to start


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## mikeyB (Sep 1, 2016)

I think we should form a new Socialist But Not Loony Left Diabetic Party, but it doesn't lend itself to a catchy acronym. Any ideas? I'm not fixed on the name.

(This could cause a whole stampede of trouble)


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## Martin Canty (Sep 1, 2016)

Diabetic Independent Party (Socialist).... DIPS


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## Marsbartoastie (Sep 1, 2016)

What about the Diabetes Awareness and Free Treatment party


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