Beggars on the Tube

I've always been in a dilemma over this when it's happened. Given begging is a contravention of LU byelaws, should I pull the on board alarm or not at the next station? Be interested to know people's thoughts!

I would never pull the PEA for something like this unless they are being a danger to themselves or others. The on time performance of the train is more important than a beggar going through the train.

I've come across several instances in the last month, but never before that, including two in two trains on Saturday! Once it was on the District Line but the rest were on Southeastern, Thameslink, and South West Trains services.

As harsh as it may seem, I quite strongly believe that it's a very bad thing for anyone to pay in these circumstances. I believe that for every genuine needy case, there's far more professional con artists performing a well rehearsed grift. People falling for the scam causes the scamming to continue.

As for the correct reaction, I would consider it an abuse to use the PEA for this unless there's dangerous, violent, or some other behaviour which constitutes a genuine emergency. It's certainly not correct to treat the PEA as a mechanism to report random byelaw infringements. I recommend a simple firm but neutral and calm "no", escalating to progressively more industrial language if they don't promptly disengage.

If you want to help genuine cases, donate to a bona fide charity, instead of lining the pockets of criminal gangs.

A friend who is a vicar was once asked at Victoria station to "lend" a beggar £10 towards the cost of a train ticket. My friend was dressed in full clerical clothes said no. At which point the beggar shouted and screamed at him that he wasn't a man of god etc. Next time it happened my friend said he didn't have any cash but was happy to go to the counter and buy the man a ticket using his credit card. The beggar walked off.

Another friend who is a rector used to get people calling at his house asking for a few pounds so that they could buy bread, milk etc for their starving children. This wasn't once in a while, it was multiple times a night. So rather than giving them money, he started to keep some bread in the freezer and some long life milk in the cupboard. When someone came asking for money for bread or milk he handed them a loaf or a pint of milk. The nightly calls asking for money were soon reduced in number.

My personal view is if you want to help then give some money to someone like Shelter, donate food to your local food bank or offer to buy someone a cup of tea if they ask you for money towards one. Giving money is not a good idea.

I encountered a man asking for money to buy food - I think it was on the Victoria between Oxy Circ and Euston, evening-time post rush hour. A lady nearby gave him a bunch of grapes from her bag, after which he went growling down the carriage, kicked the end panel viciously, and got off at the next stop. He did take the grapes with him, but one sensed that wasn't the kind of food he was hungry for.

I agree. Plus, let's not forget the automated "please do not encourage their presence" announcements on-board most trains! I had some musicians on the Northern line last night (yes, it really felt like I was on the Paris Metro!) and I just sat their apathetically, staring into space as they came round with the cup... everyone else around me did exactly the same. No disrespect to their circumstances but I really did not choose to be subjected to that rather loud music at that time of night, nor did I like being put in the position where you can't escape from it.

I was approached a couple of months ago by somebody who asked me if I could spare 10p for a phone call as he had lost his mobile and needed to phone his friend etc etc. I advised him to dial 100 for the Operator and ask for a reverse charge call.

Similarly, somebody asked me for a "quid for a bus fare" last summer, to which I told him that cash was no longer accepted on buses.

On both occasions, an allegation of my parent's marital status in the 1980s was made.

I always give, being a 'there but for the grace of God' sort of person, despite being an agnostic!!

Mind you, being a smoker & therefore making a bee-line for off-station smoking areas, requests are usually for a fag only & the price of a cuppa sometimes-I usually give £2, as they are a coin that gets on my wick-being neither one thing nor the other.

I have actually, thinking about it, never been approached on the Tube or platforms, just on the way in or out & never ever by aggressive beggars.

Nor by foreigners, unless you count Scots as such!

The precise amounts always annoy me e.g. a beggar on-board one of the new 'RM' buses who required '47p' for a bacon sandwich... I can't think of anywhere in London that sells bacon sandwiches for that precise figure and even if they did it wouldn't be as specific as the number 47! In fact, he would have spent more on his bus fare in the first place!

It was only the other day when I was waiting for a friend outside Earlsfield railway station that a man kept pestering me for £2 without specifying why it had to be £2; I wouldn't have minded so much if it was a voluntary contribution. Similarly, as I was interchanging one day between White City and Wood Lane, a man started following me between the two (obviously waiting to target out-of-station interchangers) asking me for a five pound note and when I told him that I didn't have any cash on me (which was genuinely the case) he suggested we take a detour to a cash machine...