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From this and this I get the impression that what must have happened was that lots of seats were reserved from London, reservations that weren't taken up (lots of people who reserve seats seem to be content to just sit elsewhere when they realise the train isn't too full), and train staff only removed the reservation cards later
Nope. Take a look at the first picture in this (11.07am):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37167700He's walking past empty, unreserved seats - when they are reserved the cards are clearly visible.
Something doesn't add up here though because if there were empty, unreserved seats, how come other people were also sitting on the floor?
Fox-
Ah, I was making the lazy assumption that it was the same carriage both times.
Something doesn't add up here though because if there were empty, unreserved seats, how come other people were also sitting on the floor?
This is the explanation from his team (from your link):
Mr Corbyn's campaign team said: "When Jeremy boarded the train he was unable to find unreserved seats, so he sat with other passengers in the corridor who were also unable to find a seat.
"Later in the journey, seats became available after a family were upgraded to first class, and Jeremy and the team he was travelling with were offered the seats by a very helpful member of staff."
They released photos of other people sitting on the floor and comments from a fellow traveller who said the service was "very overcrowded".
Asked about the CCTV footage apparently showing Mr Corbyn walking past seats without "reserved" signs on them, the Labour leader's team said some of these seats had bags on them which appeared to belong to people who had gone to the toilet.
So, basically, Corbyn benefited from some people (who were already sitting down by the sound of it) 'upgrading' to first class. :)
Oliver Schick
From this and this I get the impression that what must have happened was that lots of seats were reserved from London, reservations that weren't taken up (lots of people who reserve seats seem to be content to just sit elsewhere when they realise the train isn't too full), and train staff only removed the reservation cards later, which was when they were able to show Corbyn to a seat. I'd expect him on principle not to sit in a seat marked 'reserved' at the time. Still maladroit to then release such a video, if my surmise is correct.