A plea from the afflicted

It is a truism of life that there are two sides to every story – perhaps three if one counts President Trump’s ‘fake news’ [I get the hump whenever a BBC newsreader – presumably in the interests of impartiality, e.g. after a report detailing the latest horror story about hundreds of people dying in the corridors of NHS hospitals because of lack of funding – ends by quoting a Government statement in response to the effect “The NHS has had more four times more money pumped into it since 2010 than any Government in history has previously managed …” as if someone somewhere expects us to believe that this conclusively trumps – literally – everything we have just been watching] – and here’s another that fits the bill: a report upon parents feeling intimidated when flying with their children on airlines, as appears today upon the website of the – DAILY MAIL

I’d just like to register a response to its thrust by putting another point of view on behalf of all those who don’t have children and/or who have children or even grandchildren but don’t ever travel with them.

There is nothing more calculated to annoy and irritate me – an individual with grown-up kids but yet no grandchildren – than boarding an airplane for a scheduled flight and discovering I am booked into a seat within forty rows of young parents or grandparents travelling with either screaming or unruly kids aged 3 months to ten years old.

I’d happily pay a premium of £250 to any airline – even a budget, no frills operator whose ticket to e.g. Mallorca costs no more than £75 one-way – offering to put on special flights for those adults who (without fear or favour) would prefer to travel anywhere anytime on a flight that was guaranteed to have no kids on it.

I’m sure I’m not the only one.