Sheffield freedom ride pensioners

[hauxwell]

I have just moved from Sheffield to Newcastle. I feel they have got the concession passes right here. Pensioners are allowed to use their passes in line with the rest of the country after 9.30 am in the week and all day at weekends. However if they have an early morning hospital appointment and they show the letter to the bus driver they can travel in the week before 9.30 without having to pay. Disabled concession passes are the same as pensioners if they are not working. If they do have a job they have to apply to the council for a pass to let them travel before 9.30 am. I think the council have got it right here.

[ormester101]

I'm still waiting for your suggestion of what they should have done instead...

 

showed some decourum instead of being animals

[No User Name]

I heard some OAP's on a tram a while ago muttering to each other "Why's he got a card? He can't be older than 25". They're right, I'm not, it's a Stagecoach Smartcard that I pay £46 a month for. The sense of entitlement and how nobody else should be allowed anything is an attitude among many OAP's that I seriously dislike. Quick to judge without knowing the facts. And, (as an 'open letter' to OAP's, you didn't pay your taxes to reap these benefits now, it's the people like myself that are funding your concessions. And you know what? When I retire, there probably won't be enough in the pot to pay for any concessions. It'll be my generation that ultimately suffer for your never being happy with what you've got )

 

On topic: If you break the law, you pay the price for the crime. If as the eyewitness in this thread stated being aggressive, then what choice do the police have but to restrain? Take everything the guy throws at them on the chin and let him off with a stern warning? I think not. Again, this generation are quick to judge the 'youth of today' and how disgusting my generations behaviour is, but if they take a good look in the mirror, they are no better.

 

You should post more.

 

---------- Post added 23-06-2014 at 22:41 ----------

 

showed some decourum instead of being animals

 

Yes but enough about the behaviour of the protestors...

Edited June 23, 2014 by No User Name

[Elmambo]

Shameful, disgusting bullies is what I see. No allowance for ageing joints, dodgy tickers, no respect for age. Five public officials, publicly torturing (in the guise of restraint), by partial dislocation of the shoulder joints, an old man. I wonder what damage they have done. How they can show their faces in public or go home to their families is completely beyond me. Makes me ashamed to be British.

 

Nothing any one can say would justify this.

[No User Name]

Shameful, disgusting bullies is what I see. No allowance for ageing joints, dodgy tickers, no respect for age. Five public officials, publicly torturing (in the guise of restraint), by partial dislocation of the shoulder joints, an old man. I wonder what damage they have done. How they can show their faces in public or go home to their families is completely beyond me. Makes me ashamed to be British.

 

Nothing any one can say would justify this.

 

Your view is very much in the minority.

[lily may]

I know I'm slightly off topic, but I would like to say that, as a 66 year old woman who was fortunate to be able to retire at 60 on a state pension, I am very uncomfortable with this protest. Our generation has been very fortunate, in general. The bus and rail concessions were/are just that ie concessions, not a right nor entitlement.

Society, education and working life have all changed, in the majority of respects (but not all) for the worse over the last 50 years and I feel that the generations after mine are having a very tough time of it. Our post WW2 working class generation was brought up in a time of financial hardship, but the spirit of community and the sense of support and security which that engendered is mostly gone now. My children, now in their 30s are going to have to work until they are 70 or older. Nowadays, most couples with children find it necessary for both partners to work; the luxury of having the choice to be a stay-at-home mum is not possible for most people. Working life itself is, for almost everyone, so much more stressful and precarious than it was even 20 years ago. I could go on, but I'll finish by saying that one should count one's blessings and, at a time when the country is struggling to balance the books and everyone is feeling the pinch, losing the concession of free rail travel and a reduction in the hours of free bus travel isn't, in my opinion, something that warrants such a level of protest nor justifies the attendant cost of police time.

 

Here's another 65yr old who totally agrees with your post.

[kdhurst380]

Here's another 65yr old who totally agrees with your post.

 

It's refreshing to hear things from this perspective. Nice to know that rational people do exist

[Anna B]

So people break the law and then complain about the handling by the police. Well if they paid the fair like everyone else then there wouldnt be a problem.

 

The right to protest is the right of every British citizen and we should be glad that it is.

When democracy is not working it is the only viable alternative short of anarchy, .

[Guest busdriver1]

The right to protest is the right of every British citizen and we should be glad that it is.

When democracy is not working it is the only viable alternative short of anarchy, .

 

This is not protesting it is theft, deception, anarchy.

Protesting of course is a right, protesting involves making a protest, not trying to deceive people and steal. If they want to protest, stand outside with banners.

 

---------- Post added 24-06-2014 at 02:36 ----------

 

It might turn out to be good for their cause, as it seems action without violence is mostly ignored by the media.

 

The reason their cause is getting nowhere is because that is where it should go. There is no reasonable argument for this behaviour. They have had a concession withdrawn because we are all having to tighten our belts. They have then had it partially replaced and that is not good enough even though it leaves them much better off than most of their peers.

The tired old argument that they have earned it does not hold up, what they have paid for was the current concessions at that time. WE are all paying for what they are getting now.

[ormester101]

Your view is very much in the minority.

 

yet again your totally wrong the views are very mixed . I have just read the star report and sounds like to me the gustappo of the train companies that lovee to stop people using the bridge that i may add was paid for with public money are at it again . I never forget going to the train station they were doing a drug watch and the train came in at platform 1b so i nipped through burger king suddenly 4 coppers around me asking me why i avoided the sniffer dogs i explained that my train was at platform 1b . The coppers were heavy handed and damn right disgrace yet some people will say there doing there job theres doing there job and been utter pricks and this is why they get a bad reputation . The problem is soon as they get uniform some police think its ok to act in a way thats nothing else but thugs . look at the that newspaper guy in london that basically got swept under the carpet from the thuggery of the police officer . Yet people think its ok for the coppers to act in this way whats more is i have read they were disabled that got injured i hope some prosecutes the police .