Politics

Scottish Review : Mick North

8 December 2008 · Scottish Review

Whatever happened to queuing?

Mick North

A few weeks ago, frustrated that my first ever flight from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 to Glasgow had been delayed by over two hours, I decided to go to one of the numerous eating places housed within Richard Rogers’ huge and impressive barn of a building. That evening there were certainly more varieties of fast food on offer than fast departures. I joined a short queue at Prêt a Manger, where a handful of us formed an orderly line. An extra member of staff appeared at the counter, and as I was at the head of the queue I shimmied sideways in the direction of the newcomer. I was suddenly aware that someone else was heading in the same direction, trying to get past me. I won the photo finish, but there was an immediate reproach in my ear ‘Whatever happened to ladies first?’. The female voice, maybe American, threw me. Surely I’d only taken my rightful place. I countered with an instant riposte, ‘Whatever happened to queuing?’. She didn’t answer but it got me thinking.
     Why did I feel upset by her? Was queuing etiquette that important to me? I hope I’m not so selfish that I couldn’t have waited a little longer whilst another customer was served. Yet she had broken an unwritten rule, it had not been her turn, and with brazen opportunism she had tried to push in. There is something about queuing that makes most of us adhere to an orderly pattern of behaviour without a second thought. We despise those who don’t comply with the rules. Woe betides the queue-jumper, even when she’s a lady. Coming from the French word for tail, the queue is certainly alive and well in Britain. We learn the rules early. It’s been part of my life since I queued for school lunches and at the turnstiles of football grounds. Queuing is something we British think we’re good at, perhaps better than anybody else. It reflects our perceived sense of fair play and equality, an order determined by nothing other than time of arrival, first come first served.
     Having to stand and listen repeatedly to an electronic voice urging customers to go to ‘Cashier number 1 please’ is irritating and can seem overly regimented, but I prefer that to the free for all that might otherwise occur. I contrast it with my experiences in busy pubs, where despite my height and size I have often found myself overlooked by the bar staff. Without a queue it is often the person who can best attract attention who gets served first, not the one who’s been waiting the longest. I’m just not pushy enough – well, not in bars anyway.
     There are some circumstances, however, when many people, even in queue-conscious Britain, ignore the ‘rules’. Patterns of behaviour change behind the wheel of a car, and so it’s no surprise that on the roads queue-jumping can be rife. Whilst most of us respond to signs for ‘lane closures ahead’ by pulling into the appropriate motorway lane and joining the slow-moving traffic, some drivers will speed past, indulging in brinkmanship until they have almost collided with the cones before forcing their vehicle into the queue. It would never happen in a supermarket. The atmosphere in airport lounges also seems to affect attitudes to queuing, though the result differs from queue-jumping. Many waiting to board planes acquire an uncontrollable urge to join a queue at the earliest opportunity and will respond to any announcement, regardless of what is actually said, by lining up at the desk. The effect can be as disruptive to the orderly process of boarding as queue-jumping itself.
     Whilst revealing a worrying amount about my apparent liking for order and petty rules, I have also been reflecting on the potency of the image of the queue. Some have negative connotations, because standing in line can mean shortages and dependency. Pictures of queues for bread and queues for the soup kitchen are evocative of hard times. The image of the dole queue was used effectively by the Conservatives in their ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ poster campaign in 1979. But there are also the positive images. The recent ones of American voters in long lines outside polling stations as they turned out in unprecedented numbers during the presidential election symbolised a mass desire to participate in the democratic process. These are the more important images of queuing I should keep in my head, and I should now put that chance encounter at Heathrow behind me.

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