Baby blackmail

Elaine Pomeransky defends mothers who refuse to vacate the space required for a wheelchair user (Letters, 10 December), but her rhetorical question “What sort of society are we that forces a baby off a bus into the rain?” amounts to little more than moral blackmail.

She seems not to realise that there is a fundamental difference between a buggy and a wheelchair, in that the former, unlike the latter, can be folded up. Of course this is inconvenient but I would have hoped other passengers would have volunteered to hold the baby while this was done.

Simply insisting on one’s “rights” at other people’s expense is, unfortunately, all too common nowadays.

It is certainly not the mark of a civilised and compassionate society.

Martin D Stern

Hanover Gardens

Salford, Greater Manchester