Shame on you all

I will cheer up a bit later and post more cheerful blogs, but I wanted to share something with you that I think basically sums up Everything That Is Wrong With England And The English People….
On Tuesday this week I got to work early to treat myself to a fried breakfast in the supermarket café. It was raining, and as I made my way across the wet car park, I saw an elderly woman get in trouble with her trolley. She had her head down trying to avoid the driving rain and failed to spot a big hole in the tarmac as she made her way to Section B. The hole was just the right size for one of the front wheels to jam in, so the front left side of her trolley came to an instant stop, and the momentum of the trolley tipped the whole thing over and dumped her bags of shopping into a puddle. She managed to stop herself falling over, but she’d jolted her wrist when the handle was wrenched from her hand, and being in her late seventies (at a guess) she was obviously not able to bend down to pick everything up. A lad named Jamie, who spends most of his time tidying up the trolley parks and retrieving abandoned trolleys, ran over to her, and between us we were able to right the trolley again and load the poor woman’s shopping back in for her. Jamie offered to call a first-aider for her but she insisted she was ok and just asked for help putting stuff in her car.
Now I’ll admit it did look very funny when the incident happened, and I’m sure if it was captured on camera it would become a very popular clip on ‘calamity’ shows and be shared ad infinitum on social media, but there is a deeper, more sober point.
There were probably upwards of a hundred people milling about the car park that morning, and only two of us bothered to offer help in any way. Most of the others pretended not to have seen, or suddenly found something in their pockets that required their urgent attention, or simply rushed past her to get into the shop.
After the appalling earthquake in Nepal last week, I saw clips on the news of people risking their own lives by running into collapsing buildings to try and save people they didn’t even know. Here in England, when an old woman is struggling with her shopping, people look the other way because they’re more concerned about getting in out of the rain.
Disgrace.

RC 16-5-15