^^
Well most ground staff and crews know that most PAX leave their common sense at home when they go to an airport. The great British tradition of queuing generally takes priority over everything in my experience.
I have had many disagreements with PAX who believe that our priorities should be entirely organised around the order in which they joined the queue. For example able bodied couples will frequently object to "not being able to sit together" if you give a mother and small child behind them in the check-in queue priority for seating together.