We are in the theatre in Richmond.
A chap of about 85 came in via the Accessibilty entrance as I did. He was on a Zimmer frame and moved very slowly. There seemed to be confusion as to which was his seat, as like me only certain seat areas are wide enough to actually get into when you have reduced mobility status, and he’d been assigned a seat which didn’t make allowances for that.
Anyway, when he said to the attendant that he’d appreciate a different seat, she agreed and gave him the seat on the end of a row, about 3 seats away from his original one. He duly sat in it, taking about 2 minutes of zimmer manoeuvring to do so. His companion relieved him of his Zimmer, and he looked comfortable. Then 2 women appeared, wine glasses in hand, both about 60. One said ‘ excuse me, you are in my seat ‘. At this point ALL of the seats in the surrounding 4 rows were empty. That’s around 70 seats. This old chap’s companion said that he’d be assigned this seat as he was able to get into it. Completely unmoved the woman said ‘ but it’s my seat ‘. At this point I thought surely the attendant was going to say that his needs were the priority here, and could she use an adjacent seat.
But no, she said that she was sorry, but could he move to the row behind … to my disbelief the old fellah struggled up and shuffled to the seat directly behind him, having had his Zimmer brought to him, and the Richmond wine ‘ ladies’ sat down where he had been, still surrounded on all sides by empty rows of seats.
As no parties seemed moved by any of this, I held my tongue.. and the play began.

But get this – at the interval the 2 wine women decided to move two rows forward and 3 seats to the right for the second half! Absolutely no hint of embarrassment from either of them, or words of apology to the old fella that they had INSISTED move 45 minutes earlier.

I’ve been in similar situations myself, most notably on a plane recently where I had been put in ‘ someone else’s ‘ seat. There was absolutely ZERO chance of me agreeing to move, just because some precious twat preferred the seat I was in to an identical seat 10 feet away.

We lament the behaviour of the youth of today, but believe me there are some total c**** amongst the supposedly educated older middle classes in Britain.