Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The ignorant and the gay, and an appeal for help


Now listen, I'm not averse to a bit of healthy criticism. I realise that not everyone in the Thames Valley and the west of England hates First Great Western.
I also realise that to many, this blog has extremist tendencies, with my use of the word 'hate' appearing to have echoes of 'hate crimes', 'hate mail' and other not-very-nice things.
I don't even mind being told to get a life, since to those who don't use FGW on a regular basis, the depth of feeling about it cannot easily be understood.
What I do object to, however, is the suggestion that not only are we, the FGW-hating public, a bunch of saddos, we are also gay.
Surely, I mean really, honestly, are we not aware these days that accusing someone of being gay is not an insult? It also immediately reveals you as someone ignorant, whose comment I have to delete from my blog because it is offensive, thereby depriving you of your right to voice your opinion.
Also, if you think we're sad for spending so much time complaining about a train company, how sad are you when, on coming across the blog, feel so much rage that you feel compelled to spout your badly-spelt feelings, thereby showing that you yourself have nothing better to do than get all annoyed about something that you don't like. Either say something sensible, or: Just. Go. Away.
There, I feel much better now. I'm just getting annoyed at the amount of time I have to spend cleaning up the blog, although I suppose that's the price you pay for putting something on the internet in the first place.
Anyway, that's not what I was going to talk about today. I was, in fact, going to ask all those of you who are supporters of the blog to help a campaign group which is campaigning for a better service for the nice people of Wiltshire. Please sign the petition here to persuade First Great Western that the draft timetable they've agreed really will have the support of the people who will use it. They'll be very very grateful, and perhaps Wiltshire will get the service it needs.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I, for one, enjoy your blog and it's a shame about the minority who post their flawed and spiteful opinions here. I am also a passenger of FGW, there are highs and lows but it's good to hear both from you. Keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for posting a link to the Save The Train Pledge Campaign.

Lord Hutton said...

Done

The Train Fellow said...

This post sums up everything I wanted to say to some of the ruder comments I had on my blog. I now vet all comments before publishing.

Keep going with the updates.

The Train Fellow

Anonymous said...

im a new user to this site and would like to commend those who ahve made it a success, lets just hope FGW can do the same. i'm a first class commuter between henley and paddington and feel that the service has emphatically improved! i would like to hear the comments of fellows like me.

Anonymous said...

Good words.