Lots of people being rude to each other on a London bus.We all know the police have the occasional moment of rudeness – policing minister Damien Green even said so himself. But is that because they're all petulant, power-hungry narcs who use their badge as a means to deal with whatever inadequacy issues they've kept bottled up since adolescence? Or because the people they deal with on a day-to-day basis have a tendency to be rude to them, prompting them to be rude in response?I wanted to get a measure of what the London police have to deal with, so I went to ask some people a question that I thought might help me do just that: What's the rudest thing someone's done to you in London?
Scott: It’s strange, really, because you’ve got a physical rudeness and a mental rudeness. So it depends. But the rudest thing that’s ever happened, I guess, is when I was on a bus with my girlfriend and we were getting heckled for being Jewish.VICE: Yeah, that’s not OK.
That’s the rudest thing. But, for another rude thing – rudeness in business, like office politics, is hard. The rudest thing someone ever said to me was, "You’re very patient with being impatient."What does that mean?
I suppose it can mean whatever you want it to mean.It sounds like a very confusing and shit insult to me.
Adam (left) and Chloe.Chloe: Someone pushed in front of us at Nando’s.It doesn’t sound like you’ve had too hard a time.
Oh, taxi drivers are bad – they’re always trying to run us over.You haven’t been run over, have you?
Not yet, no.
Adam: My brother’s a Londoner now, so I guess he counts. He was playing with a Thunderbirds figurine I had when I was four and he threw it in the pool. I haven't got back yet and I'm 18 now.So you’ve had 14 years and you didn’t get revenge?
I’m going to do something really good. I’ll steal his girlfriend.That's maybe a little much.
John: Oh god. The rudest thing is when someone tried to have sex with me without my permission.How did that happen? Were you propositioned?
I wasn’t even propositioned. I was in the bedroom having it on and another man thought he’d have a go and he got a slap.Too right, mate.
Isabella: The rudest thing? I carried my niece in a pram and a guy tutted at me because I was taking over half the pavement. I told him to chill out and he said, "I am calm, it’s your fucking baby that’s in the way."
Laura: A tramp stole my smoothie once. Is that rude?Yeah, I guess so. What happened?
I was at Victoria station. I’d just had a mental weekend in Newcastle and I was going back to Kent. My phone died and I needed to use the phone box, so I put my smoothie on a bench – and here it’s like £4 for a drink, remember – and when I turned around it was gone and there was a tramp walking away, his toes hanging out of his shoes and he smelt of wee and he was walking away with my smoothie and I was really gutted.Previously - What Do You Think of John Inverdale's Bartoli Comments?
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That’s the rudest thing. But, for another rude thing – rudeness in business, like office politics, is hard. The rudest thing someone ever said to me was, "You’re very patient with being impatient."What does that mean?
I suppose it can mean whatever you want it to mean.It sounds like a very confusing and shit insult to me.
Oh, taxi drivers are bad – they’re always trying to run us over.You haven’t been run over, have you?
Not yet, no.
Adam: My brother’s a Londoner now, so I guess he counts. He was playing with a Thunderbirds figurine I had when I was four and he threw it in the pool. I haven't got back yet and I'm 18 now.So you’ve had 14 years and you didn’t get revenge?
I’m going to do something really good. I’ll steal his girlfriend.That's maybe a little much.
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I wasn’t even propositioned. I was in the bedroom having it on and another man thought he’d have a go and he got a slap.Too right, mate.
I was at Victoria station. I’d just had a mental weekend in Newcastle and I was going back to Kent. My phone died and I needed to use the phone box, so I put my smoothie on a bench – and here it’s like £4 for a drink, remember – and when I turned around it was gone and there was a tramp walking away, his toes hanging out of his shoes and he smelt of wee and he was walking away with my smoothie and I was really gutted.Previously - What Do You Think of John Inverdale's Bartoli Comments?