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Boris's ban on alcohol on London Transport (with poll)

What do you think of Boris's proposed ban on drinking on public transport?


  • Total voters
    227
I used to drink on the tube/bus as it was the only way to get round the licensing hours. You finish work at 5.30, get home at 6.30, make dinner, get ready, it's now 8pm. It might take an hour to get to where the pub is. That leaves you a whopping two hours at the pub.
 
I think we already had a big thread about it where the whole issue was explored... but generally, if you're actually _drinking_ on the tube, you're not a problem, yes. You'd have to be on a pretty bloody long tube ride to actually get pissed and obnoxious by drinking on the tube, even allowing for signal failures and diversions to a place you never bloody wanted to go.

Exactly. Someone having their (first) can of beer on the tube en route to the pub is hardly going to cause much trouble.
 
I had a gin and tonic on the train today - served by the train staff. I'd been on a long day cycling and fancied a drink on my way home. The lady in front of me was having a can of beer. Quite normal - neither of us "preparatory" drinking - just enjoying a drink on our way home. Sometimes I'll do the same on a tube or bus - although I'd be less likely to as it would generally be a shorter journey.

I don't do it very often.. but then I very rarely see people drinking on the tube at all...

This whole policy is just a complete waste of time, energy and public money that could be so much better spent.

GG, rich people drinking alcohol on their expensive commuter train=fine
Poor people drinking a couple of beers on the way to the pub, to get round the licensing hours/pub prices=vicious evil end of society as we know it.
 
Here, as was pointed out by JC, we don't drink in public places. That includes parks, buses - anywhere that has public assess. For us, this is civilizated. I found it very strange that you embrace this as a personal freedom. It makes the the UK seems a little backward, imo.

What, so you can't even sit in the park and have a bottle of wine with a picnic? Now that is bloody weird. A cold drink with friends etc in the outdoors on a good summer's day is one of life's ultimate simple pleasures.
 
Unfortunately, your people dont seem to be handling their liberties very well; the place is slowly slipping into social disorder.

Apart from some schoolkids using lots of F words as they walked past me on Millfields common when I was back in the UK last summer, this simply doesn't seem to be the case. It's the same rather quiet, polite, grey place it's always been
 
No. Ever spent Saturday night on Granville Street? Same thing, I think. But those spectacles aren't the typical Canadian experience, and there are specific reasons in each case for their existence.

Right, but they aren't the typical London experience either, outside of a few suburban semi-separate-towns like Kingston, Croydon etc. It has little to do with blokes minding their own business having a can of beer on the way to the pub after a hard week at work.
 
By the sounds of all the assaults, robberies etc that you have, 440 additional cops sounds like a middling-to-weak start at a fix.

We have just about double the number of total crimes, yet also double the population

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri-crime-total-crimes

:confused:

And considering that generally people in the UK live in much greater proximity to each other, that suggests that people are hardly descending into disorder any more than Canada is.
 
No one else from any other country, has said that alcohol consumption is allowed on their public transportation. I think UK is an anomaly on this.

I think it springs from the day when most people were proles working in factories and mines, and their lives were so horrible that they couldn't wait the length of a tube ride before beginning their nightly drinking, especially with the bizarre restrictive pub drinking hours that you had until recently.

Explain that one, you were able to drink on the subway, but not in a pub during the afternoon?:confused:

I've had beer on buses in China before.

That said, nobody Chinese does it, because it's just a bit weird in Chinese society to drink when not eating. But there's definitely not a law against it. Then again, there are far fewer laws in China on most things (except for criticising the government).
 
None. I've never seen anyone drink on your public transportation system before, so it came as a complete shock that it was legal.

You seem to have a much more lax attitude about drinking over there - here alcohol is kept out of the public view. In Ontario, all alcohol (open or closed) must be carried in the boot - it is the law.

You see it as a freedom - I can accept that. I can also accept that when in Texas, drinking and driving is accepted. I remember one time when the State tried to ban it and the population claimed it was their right, and won.

Different countries, different cultures.

Oh - and sorry about the assault on your language. It was unintentionally.

I love north America,keep it out of public view and it goes away,whether it's alcohol,drugs ,sex or death sweeping it under the carpet isn't going to make it go away.As one who previously enjoyed a can or two on the tube I see this as just another attack on our right to live a life unfettered by some deluded nut job with a mission to have us all regimented to the point of non existance.:mad:
 
Johnny: Drinking on public transport is legal in all the European countries I can think of. In Berlin where I was recently there are even shops on platforms that sell cold beer, an I even saw one with some high tables so you could perch and chat with a beer while waiting for your S-Bahn. Like London, it's people having a beer going somewhere else. Noone is "getting pissed on the tube".

I wonder if this ban will have the effect it had in the US, I.e. Carry on regardless, with those single can bags you get given automatically when you buy a single beer?
 
I don't really have a problem with it but he'd definitely strike a chord with me if he banned fried foods and music played on shitty little mobile phones.


Yes, speaker mobile phones are antisocial. If you want to listen to your own music, use headphones, don't inflict it on everyone around you over a crappy little speakerphone.

The silly thing about the proposed drinking ban is that it will annoy and affect those who AREN'T drunk and troublesome, because they will largely obey it, and be ignored by those who ARE, because they won't give a stuff, and won't be told what to do, unless uniformed police turn up.

Giles..
 
Much as I hate to credit Boris with any intelligence, it might have been because it was a shit idea, which is why the judiciary forced Blunkett to backtrack. So now we're left with a situation where minimum sentences are effectively only enforcable for those over 21, which may or may not have encouraged older criminals to get younger teens to hold the weapons. Make the age for minimum prison sentences lower and the kids holding the guns will just get younger. I've heard this from people in South London who think it's happening, but here's a related news link.

Why is it a "shit idea"?

Most people want to stop the casual carrying of firearms by ever-younger criminals.

If someone is caught with a totally illegal handgun in public, then to me that means that have it because they want to frighten people into "respecting" them, or because they think it more than possible that they might need to shoot someone that day.

If younger people are carrying the guns, lock them up too. Why should they be treated differently?

If anything, it is the carrying of guns by immature teenagers that makes their use over absolutely trivial incidents more likely, because they are not able to think beyond the immediate insult / situation / etc as to whether it is "worth" shooting someone.

Giles..
 
They'll be banning the champagne bar at St Pancras next!!

_44211733_champ_bar203.jpg
 
For the same reason as with seatbelts and insurance.

A small minority of tube riders[or vehicle drivers] will create a problem [be in a serious accident]. But because we can't identify who those people will be beforehand, the law has to be made of general applicaton.

You don't need dangerous drivers to create accidents - accidents can happen because of the weather, road conditions, illness, car faults or tiny errors of judgement. So seatbelts and insurance aren't a case of people being forced to do something thanks to the actions of a disorderly minority - they're there to protect people from real dangers that no-one can completely avoid.

Germany, Eastern Europe, Spain and Italy definitely allow drinking on public transport and anywhere in public, and France definitely allows drinking on some trains and in general public places like parks. Otherplaces might do as well, but I don't know. It's certainly not a British thing. Banning it is a North American thing.

I find it sad that, in Canada, if you don't have a garden then you're not allowed to take a picnic and a bottle of wine to the park. :(
 
I find it sad that, in Canada, if you don't have a garden then you're not allowed to take a picnic and a bottle of wine to the park. :(

I think you can if you brown bag it. You just end up looking like a gluesniffer.

445599076_64657fcd88.jpg


Besides - Canada is huge. Plenty of places to drink beer outdoors.

I got "carded" a few times when I was buying booze there as a lad, but the London accent usually persuaded them. Especially if they were female.
 
What, so you can't even sit in the park and have a bottle of wine with a picnic? Now that is bloody weird. A cold drink with friends etc in the outdoors on a good summer's day is one of life's ultimate simple pleasures.

I agree - but that is Ontario. You are not even supposed to drink on your front lawn, must be in the back. Quebec is not so strict. As I said before, it is up to the individual areas to impose their standards as to what is acceptable and what is not.
 
I used to drink on the tube/bus as it was the only way to get round the licensing hours. You finish work at 5.30, get home at 6.30, make dinner, get ready, it's now 8pm. It might take an hour to get to where the pub is. That leaves you a whopping two hours at the pub.

Can't you keep beer at home? Then you can start drinking at 6:30.
 
Why do people want to drink alcohol on the tube, anyway, if it's not 'preparatory' drinking?

well, just this weekend I was travelling back from the North of England to London on a train that had no option to buy a drink, didn't get into London until gone 9pm after over 5 hours on the train and I really wanted a drink, so I bought a tin of g&t at the station and drank it on the tube, didn't cause any problems and it meant I could start relaxing from my journey a little sooner.
 
Johnny: Drinking on public transport is legal in all the European countries I can think of. In Berlin where I was recently there are even shops on platforms that sell cold beer, an I even saw one with some high tables so you could perch and chat with a beer while waiting for your S-Bahn.

I think in Germany beer isn't even considered alcohol. :)

Personally I'm not bothered by this ban on drinking on public transport as I don't do that anyway, though it seems like a knee-jerk reaction applied in the wrong place.
 
What he's doing is consistent with the way the law is in NA. Perhaps he sees it as a small step to curbing the creeping social disorder that you seem to be undergoing.

NorthAmerican-style laws fucking suck. You can't J-walk. You can't enjoy a beer in the park. Don't do this. Don't do that. There's no room for personal responsibility, so they lower society down to the lowest common denominator. There's still unruly thugs in Canada. Some kid had his skull caved in mere houses away from my old house in Edmonton while on his way home from his University exams. Perhaps he was drinking a beer and the assailant was outraged by his lack for social decency.

I for one am deeply saddened that I won't be able to enjoy a tin on my way into the west end on a Saturday night.
 
There used to be bars in some tube stations too, I think. Can't find a source right now.
 
One step towards making public transport safe and enjoyable. Next step hopefully the idiots playing music out loud on their mobile phones.

Unfortunately none of these things are going to make a difference unless there are people prepared to follow through and take action against offenders, be it drivers, conductors or on-call law enforcement officers.

If people can't manage a half hour or so on a bus or the tube without alcohol ... then perhaps that's an issue they need to address for themselves rather than blaming the authorities.

As someone who has had more than one late night journey disrupted by people drunk and abusive on a bus... this can't come soon enough.
 
I predict that the number of drunk people on tubes and buses will hardly be affected by this law.
 
Will it cover the DLR as well? On my way home last night there were empty cans scattered all around the floor of the carriage. This was just after 6pm. Are people really that desperate for a drink that they can't wait to get home or to their local?
 
As someone who has had more than one late night journey disrupted by people drunk and abusive on a bus... this can't come soon enough.

So do people sober up immediately they get onto to public transport...? :confused:

I wonder if they allow deck-chairs + popcorn on Public Transport these days...
 
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