As you may have picked up from other blogs (including Impy Malting and Knut Albert), there was a party last night to mark the drinking ban on London transport.
It appears to have turned into a bit of a riot, as can (sadly) be expected when large groups of boozy Brits get together. I didn’t go, as I thought it would get nasty. The BBC has the story.
While not wanting to make light of the fact that people got assaulted, trains got damaged etc, I can’t help a little giggle over the fact that new Mayor Boris Johnson’s politicking has already backfired on him. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really care about being able to drink or not on the Tube — I’m not an alcoholic. But I don’t think many Londoners would say that people drinking on public transport was one of London’s big issues, and we’ve already got laws and regulations to cover the potential nasty side effects like assault, abuse etc. The whole, unenforceable gesture was to make Boris look tough on law and order, and it’s managed to cause a major law and order incident. Nice one.
Incidentally, drinking is still allowed on national rail services (where they sell it to you), which is where I’ve experienced the worst anti-social behaviour. Worse because people are on it for longer and thus drink more, and because you can’t get off and wait for the next train if it gets bad.
Boak
3 replies on “Chaos on tube as drinking ban hits London public transport”
If it had backfired on Boris, that would be great. But has it? You might be smiling, but all I’m hearing is people saying “proves that Boris was right” etc. Sadly, I think it hasn’t done him any harm,juste some people look right real idiots.
I actually didn’t end up going– after my friend who was going to accompany me texted me and said it was on the front page of both evening papers we both thought better of it.
I wrote about my ambivalence on my London blog– http://feralstrumpet.wordpress.com
The only way this can be politicized is in hindsight– if it can be seen as the first harbinger of failure of his leadership. I honestly don’t see how it could be vindication of his policies, but then most people make up their minds about things without thinking.
How did things go on the 11?
Didn’t make it, after the Belgian session at lunch I’d already well exceeded my daily limits 🙂