Young people need reminding how they should behave in pubs

DO some young people need reminding how to behave in pubs, which are public places, and about the etiquette of keeping a table when it’s busy and crowded?

Last weekend I went to a city centre pub of some repute. There was football and it was fun.

I sat down on a table which was unoccupied, had no drinks and had no jackets over the chairs – nothing, in short, to indicate that anyone was sitting there.

I then noticed a black bag left on a seat – which looked as if it had been accidentally left behind. People forget things all the time. It happens. I was going to hand this in to the bar staff when a young man rushed in, flustered. I thought he’d come back for his bag so I gave it to him.

He wasn’t at all grateful or apologetic. He looked at me as if I was a thief. He said he’d gone outside with his friends to smoke and was coming back.

Fair enough – I pointed out that there were no drinks glasses on the table, no coats, nothing at all on the table except an empty packet of crisps and an empty bottle. There was nothing at all to indicate that a group was still sitting there. Other people are not psychic and the pub was popular.

I asked if they’d be buying more drinks and he said yes. He was a Brighton fan and wanted to watch the extra time in the FA Cup semifinal. Fair enough, so I moved. He was more than a bit iffy about it and never once said the magic word “thanks” or smiled. He was a bit hostile, in fact, and ungrateful. I had a very poor impression.

Then the group didn’t buy any more drinks at all, they just sat there without paying.

A note to younger pub-goers: it’s the custom in pubs and cafes to leave some kind of marker on your table if you go outside or away – otherwise, how are people to know you are still sitting there? We’re not mind-readers.

Maybe some young people are so self-obsessed that they think the world exists only for them. Well, they are wrong.

And in pubs, it is usual to buy another drink if you have finished and want to stay and watch a game. None of those four young people bought a drink, they sat at the table and watched the match without getting another round in. He had lied.

Social etiquette is there for a reason, it has evolved. If you want to keep a table, then put a coat over a chair or something. And buy a drink if you want to stay in the pub, don’t think that because you’re young you have the right to hog a table and not consume. Think of the social situation and think of other pub-goers and drinkers.

We shouldn’t have to say this but some young people just don’t seem to get it, do they? Andy Newman Bristol