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Anne Widdecombe's column, today, Feb 17, 2016

Robinredbreast

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Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express.
Ann Widdecombe
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The former Tory Minister writes exclusively for the Daily Express

Make the obese pay for two plane seats, says ANN WIDDECOMBE
IF PEOPLE are so fat that they cannot fit into one seat on an aircraft, then they should be obliged to buy two seats so they can spill over in comfort and the rest of us can be spared being squashed by them.
By ANN WIDDECOMBE

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Obese people should be made to pay for an extra seat to avoid inconveniencing others
I write with feeling having spent four hours between Samoa and New Zealand with my arms stuck out in front of me, unable to use the armrests of my seat or to move freely because of the vastness of the people either side of me. I feel sorry for the very tall who cannot help being very tall and for whom economy section leg-room is just not designed but I am starting to lose it with the very obese. The seats are perfectly adequate for a very fat person and I know somebody who takes a dress size 24 and who fits compactly into the seat and does not need a seatbelt extension (just).

It is only the utterly gigantic who have a problem and they can help themselves in a way the unusually tall cannot. I can just hear now the cries of “discrimination” but they are not justified. I do not care how fat any adult is and I do not want to stop anybody travelling but at the point where it seriously affects other people’s wellbeing, then it is not asking too much to expect these two-ton Tessies to pay for two seats.

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A recent survey suggested around 58% of the UK population are either overweight or obese
Thank heaven my agent was canny enough to negotiate a business class deal for the flight home from Auckland. Otherwise I might have spent 23 hours too squashed to move – and nobody should be expected to endure that in the name of tolerance for those who abuse their own bodies.

Britain is pretty good at helping fatties. Derbyshire Fire Service has just spent £300,000 on a special crane to rescue fat people who get stuck. Those who become too vast to leave their own houses get angled out of windows into ambulances with special beds. People who wreck their joints, hearts and livers with overeating get treated by the NHS without demur.

Stoutist we are not. But I draw the line at allowing them to cause others to suffer needlessly.

This woman does not mince her words !! :wideyed:
 
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It does beg a question though. If someone doesn't fit in a single seat on an aircraft, what is the correct approach?
 
How very high and mighty of Ms Wddecombe, at least she didn't have to suffer the same ordeal on the way back in business class :rolleyes:

Another one who likes the sound of her own voice..........
 
I have not been on a plane since my last holiday in 1997, so what the procedure is like, if airlines have one, I don't know ?
 
If I remember rightly, this so called journalist/politician was quite a size herself.
I hate those that have or did have influence slagging those who may have a health problem or a condition which they cannot help.
Look who's calling the pot black?
There, by the grace of God, go I!

Bloody Tories!
 
I wonder which she would prefer - someone who carries a few pounds, like herself, or a rabid, left wing socialist with an urge to tear her limb from very limb? There are worse things to concern one on long haul, irrespective of which cabin one travels in.

She needs a bit of a thud around the ears with the Daily Star (if it even still exists!).
 
I have no time for the woman. I remember her a few years ago defending the practice of shackling pregnant prisoners to their beds with chains while they were in labour. Anything she comes out with now can't trump that.
 
I see this more as an issue with modern aircraft, and their greedy owners, who like to pack as many passengers as possible into the cattle class. My OH and I are one of the tall ones, and are lucky when we can pay extra to get enough space for our knees not to be squashed into the back of another seat.

EDIT: Louis CK and comfort (and safety) on the plane!
 
She is just a Born Again Fatist, after losing weight herself.
- notice how she deliberately qualifies her criticism to the REAL fatties, the ones that are bigger than her friend?

She's just being judgemental and is (unfortunately) in a position to shout loudly.
She is also, if I remember correctly, rather short, on a smallish skeleton. so she has never known what it is to be cramped by your basic bone structure (like my husband, whose shoulders exceed most seat widths, and whose knees hit the seat in front, regardless of waist circumference).

I am a size 22-24 dress size, and fill plane seats and cinema seats rather well.
I also spend the whole time I am in them making **** sure that I do not overflow and occupy one millimeter more than my fair share of alloted space.
This usually means I sit with my arms crossed (for hours at a time), and brace my feet and knees to prevent any 'spread'.
After an hour or two, it becomes excruciatingly uncomfortable. A long flight leaves me in pain for the entire holiday. And then there is the journey back...

So I can guarantee that my discomfort outweighs (pun!) poor diddy Ms Widdecombe, who has a higher level of comfort since she can shift position, wriggle her bottom and move her arms.

There is, of course an obvious(ly tongue in cheek) answer.
Airlines should have seats with adjustable widths.
Mine widens while hers gets narrower, and we all get to enjoy the same amount of buffer zone.
Then she can be in the same level of pain and restriction as me.
Learning how to share is a goooood thing.
 
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I've known larger passengers swop to the end so more room. Mind u most of my flights haven't been economy air Ann dear! ;-)
 
Robinredbreast said:
I have not been on a plane since my last holiday in 1997, so what the procedure is like, if airlines have one, I don't know ?
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It varies from one airline to another and even from one route to another in one airline. A few years ago I was queuing to check in behind a woman who was checking in for the return leg of her trip: one the outward trip she'd paid for and occupied one seat, but on the return they said she'd have to pay for a second seat because of her weight. She made a fuss but eventually paid up and was issued two boarding passes. I was just checking in when she came storming back to say the two seats she'd been allocated weren't next to each other! And then, far from apologising, the check-in woman said the passenger hadn't specified she'd wanted her seats to be together and it was now too late to change them!!

On second thoughts, perhaps it's nothing to do with airline procedure but relies on the whim of the check-in staff.

Kate
 
kesun said:
It varies from one airline to another and even from one route to another in one airline. A few years ago I was queuing to check in behind a woman who was checking in for the return leg of her trip: one the outward trip she'd paid for and occupied one seat, but on the return they said she'd have to pay for a second seat because of her weight. She made a fuss but eventually paid up and was issued two boarding passes. I was just checking in when she came storming back to say the two seats she'd been allocated weren't next to each other! And then, far from apologising, the check-in woman said the passenger hadn't specified she'd wanted her seats to be together and it was now too late to change them!!

On second thoughts, perhaps it's nothing to do with airline procedure but relies on the whim of the check-in staff.

Kate
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That's terrible! Sounds like that Little Britain airport spin-off.
 
AndBreathe said:
I wonder which she would prefer - someone who carries a few pounds, like herself, or a rabid, left wing socialist with an urge to tear her limb from very limb? There are worse things to concern one on long haul, irrespective of which cabin one travels in.

She needs a bit of a thud around the ears with the Daily Star (if it even still exists!).
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With me she would get both. :)
 
I remember one of our seaside resorts had to have specially made jumbo sized deckchairs to cater for their expanding population. it cost them a fortune. If I remember correctly they got sued when one of the chairs collapsed under the weight and they were deemed negligent in not providing a sufficiently robust item of street furniture.
 
Odvatr said:
I remember one of our seaside resorts had to have specially made jumbo sized deckchairs to cater for their expanding population. it cost them a fortune. If I remember correctly they got sued when one of the chairs collapsed under the weight and they were deemed negligent in not providing a sufficiently robust item of street furniture.
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I wonder If it was Eastbourne and soon after started charging to watch their beachside Airshow?
 
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