Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast. It's Friday the 26th of January.

And thank you very much for your responses to yesterday's podcast. You might recall this all

goes back to Wednesday evening when I went out for a just just a starter and a salad, at a restaurant.

And the service was shockingly slow.

It took almost an hour to deliver the food.

And as a result of that, well, it wasn't, it was the food when it arrived was great.

But then the bill was quite considerable, inflated by 15%,

and then the waiter who had been, well, not responsible for the delay, but had been aware of the

delay, said, would you like to tip on top of that? And I'm afraid I politely declined. And I've got so many responses more than

a hundred so far. So let me run through what most of them are, because it's clearly a subject

that gets people, gets travellers exercised. I should say that I occasionally get offered tips, but I always decline them.

The circumstances are quite unusual. What happens is that I am generally in a high-vis jacket

at a railway station where I'm, I've cycled in order to report on the latest disruption.

And, um, sometimes I'm mistaken, understandably enough,

reporter mainly by older ladies, I would say.

Anyway, I do what I can to help them, and sometimes they try and thrust a pound into my

hand, which I politely decline and suggest that they drop the money in a charity box.

But I don't depend on tips for livelihood.

As discussed in the podcast, in America, some states do not have minimum wage for waiting staff

because it's assumed that they will get a tip.

So therefore, you're effectively cutting their wages, it is said that they will get a tip, so therefore you're effectively

cutting their wages, it is said, if you refuse to tip, well, typically 18% now. But let me run

...