Disrespectful and dismissive - what, us?
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Diamond Harbour, which I like to call the Riviera of Canterbury, is a special place, full of special people.
Don’t ask me for the exact statistics but the coastal suburb, with superb views of the Lyttelton Harbour and the surrounding hills, is a haven of academics, lefties, greenies, wokesters, walkers, bikers and EV drivers. I would call many of them champagne socialists but a teetotal thread runs the area. That is not to say there are not cliques of inveterate boozers - you know who you are.
Anyway generally people in Diamond Harbour, where I have lived for 36 years and where Mrs VB and I have brought up three children, are very nice. I mean real nice. Polite, considerate, neighbourly and socially-minded. You won’t find much litter around the place and even doggie excrement is hard to detect. Parties stop at 11pm and people bake muffins for their new neighbours.
Imagine the shock I received when I read my Press this morning — many Diamond Harbour people still get The Press and love it, bless them — and discovered some very personal and wounding accusations.
They appeared in an article about incidents on public transport, mainly buses. Overall assaults are trending down, but bus drivers regularly report incidents of abuse, assaults and spitting. Charming.
But here was the kicker. The outfit that runs the ferry service between Diamond Harbour and Lyttelton was concerned enough about “disrespectful and dismissive” passengers to post a mind-your-manners reminder on its Facebook page.
We don’t hit and we don’t spit. But our abuse is perhaps even more painful or hurtful.
At the moment I am at a loss to describe how this manifests itself in actual behaviour. The ferry skippers are unfailingly civil and helpful and their crews invariably efficient and friendly.
I suspect a lot occurs at the payment terminal especially when the passenger has forgotten their Gold Card and is required to pay.
“DO I LOOK UNDER 65 you ……?” That sort of thing.
Some Gold Card holders are unhappy to be reminded that their Gold Card doesn’t provide free transport before 9am during the week.
Some passengers might ignore the sign saying not to open the exit door unless you are crew or try to engage the skipper, busy negotiating the clogged and dangerous seaway between Lyttelton and Diamond Harbour, in conversation.
But even those incidents are few and far between. I have been a bus and ferry user for as long as I have lived in Diamond Harbour and although I witnessed some truly nasty incidents on the bus the ferry experience remained trouble-free.
So who are these disrespectful and dismissive people?
Perhaps they are victims of the fuel crisis and inexperienced in the ways of public transport.
No the ferry does not stop right outside the bus stop. You have to walk there. Yes you do have to put up with teenagers and listen to other peoples’ music.
The news article has not gone unnoticed. Diamond Harbour people are now looking at each other with that is-it-you expression. Some might think it’s me but I can assure them it’s not — although everyone will say that. We are all reviewing our behaviour to see how it could be perceived.
It’s tempting to assume these grumpy commuters are outsiders but I hear through the grapevine that some of these slightly rude people are indeed locals. So the witchhunt continues. We will root out this rudeness and banish the guilty person or persons. Diamond Harbour’s reputation as the capital of niceness will be restored.
Let me say up front that I fully acknowledge the feelings of the skippers and crews subjected to this outrageous conduct. However a teeny bit of me wonders if the ferry staff are being a bit precious. Perhaps Diamond Harbour commuters are so well behaved and well mannered that the staff have come to expect the highest standards from all their customers.
When someone falls below that standard it is so shocking and incongruous it must be called out. Not that I want to be dismissive.