Xenophobia on the London underground?

[John Ashworth]

Hideously diverse Britain: racism rears its head on planet commuter

One passenger, at least, was taken aback by an announcement made by a London tube train driver last week

Hugh Muir
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 November 2011 22.00 GMT

Planet commuter. It's noisy and dishevelled, but those of us who go there learn to acclimatise. We read, listen to music, write; cocooned in our own mental space.

Michael Stewart, a suited lawyer, was enjoying that space on the Northern line in south London a couple of weeks ago. He was reading the sports pages: the race row surrounding John Terry. And then that space was invaded. "The driver made two announcements. The gentlemen should watch their wallets, he said; the ladies their handbags."

The second announcement pricked the bubble. "There are many pickpockets about," said the driver five minutes later. And, he said, there are many people "within this country" who come from "other European countries" who would be more than happy to relieve you of your possessions in the run up to Christmas. His warning transmitted, the driver clicked off his microphone and focused on driving his train.

"I wondered if others had heard it; what they thought," explains Stewart, over coffee. "Another bit of lazy kneejerk racism seeps into our society."

But nothing had changed in the packed carriage. Some were obviously oblivious; distracted by BlackBerrys and iPods. But others must have heard it. "I expected to make eye contact with a like-minded liberal, but there was none. It was a carriage filled with well-to-do commuters. Maybe there was no one there who shared my value system. In that middle-class way that we do, I put my head down again."

Still, he felt aggrieved enough to raise the issue subsequently. A letter to the Guardian (to find the kind of support he looked for on the train) and a letter to the Times (to reach the establishment). He is still surprised when we meet. "Can this sort of talk be sanctioned?" he asks. No, I tell him, but it's not unusual. These are anxious times. Stereotyping is quite the thing again. As for the driver, he would say he was stating a fact; not being racist or controversial. And that would probably be the stance of everyone else who stayed in their bubbles, unperturbed. Step by mundane step. That's how tolerance falls away.