23 June 2025, 08:52

By Shelagh Fogarty

We are close to losing the battle over intrusive phone use, warns Shelagh Fogarty.

I was due to take a two hour train journey on Saturday, only to be thwarted by ‘signal failures’ on the West Coast Mainline.

Guess which signal never fails? People’s phone signals, that’s what. Pick a train, any train, and you’ll hear the fruits of those unbreakable 5G wireless connections - from blissful toddlers enjoying loud cartoon action to fully grown adults unaware a carriage load of people can hear their argument with their girlfriend, or the young posh woman bemoaning her father for not moving her stuff into storage because “Daddyyyyy, I’m on my period!”.

I’m a determined woman but I’m close to admitting defeat over intrusive phone use in public. It is without a shadow of doubt sociopathic behaviour but the majority of the public are too chicken or weary to demand better. I am neither chicken nor weary but I fear the war is lost.

I often ask offenders - yes offenders - to use headphones or put the phone to their ear instead of loudspeaker. People react in one of two ways.........

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