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

[spring-peeper]

Where are the family values in not drinking in public? It's ok to do bad things at home, but not where other people can see you?

Totally mystifies me - that is how it was explained to me when I questioned it.

Maybe it has something to do with the Canadian attitude about not offending others by your actions. Seeing others walking down the street or sitting on a train drinking could be termed as offensive to certain religions/ex-alcoholics or any one trying to raise their kids to see that alcohol is not a necessary part of your life.

 

[editor]

Seeing others walking down the street or sitting on a train drinking could be termed as offensive to certain religions/ex-alcoholics or any one trying to raise their kids to see that alcohol is not a necessary part of your life.

How's that any different to kids seeing adults having a bottle of wine at at the restaurant? Or people drinking on any one of a zillion TV shows?

 

[behemoth]

Couldn't we also ban topless men walking around in pairs swigging lager from cans in public?

 

[spring-peeper]

Couldn't we also ban topless men walking around in pairs swigging lager from cans in public?

As long as the ban applies to men only.

 

[spring-peeper]

It is up to each region to decide what is acceptable public behaviour.

Here it is not acceptable behaviour for people to be drinking on public transit. This is so engrained in me that it came as a total surprise that it was acceptable in London.

This does only apply to London, right?

 

[spring-peeper]

How's that any different to kids seeing adults having a bottle of wine at at the restaurant? Or people drinking on any one of a zillion TV shows?

Can't remember the last prime time show I watched that had alcohol comsumption on it.

 

[jæd]

Can't remember the last prime time show I watched that had alcohol comsumption on it.

"Friends" had bottles of wine, beers, etc...

 

[story]

It is up to each region to decide what is acceptable public behaviour.

Here it is not acceptable behaviour for people to be drinking on public transit. This is so engrained in me that it came as a total surprise that it was acceptable in London.

This does only apply to London, right?

So far as I am aware, the whole of the UK is allowed to drink in public, just as in most (all?) of Europe.

 

[editor]

Can't remember the last prime time show I watched that had alcohol comsumption on it.

Try watching either of the UK's two most popular TV soaps. The pub is at the heart of both.

 

[story]

Can't remember the last prime time show I watched that had alcohol comsumption on it.

Whereas here in the UK our two biggest soaps (Eastenders and Coronation Street) are centred around the pub.


Jinx, editor.

 

[story]

"Friends" had bottles of wine, beers, etc...

It was often flagged up as a problem, or as a significant thing, as I recall. Not normal and unremarkable.

 

[dream_girl]

it's really not that bad. you make it sound like south central around here!

Most nights I amble home to south London on my bike - through the West End, Southwark, Brixton, wandsworth, Tooting, etc, quite late, usually around 10 or 11 pm. The streets look pretty orderly to me. Occasionally I see someone causing trouble - but not often. Last load of drunken hooligans I saw were after a football match about 2 years ago. They weren't on the tube, nor were they drinking at the time I saw them.

I've never had trouble from someone drinking on the tube, I saw about a dozen people drinking from cans on Saturday night, all calm, happy and not apparently very drunk.

The girl I saw vomit over her skirt was not drinking.

I'm sure Boris would better serve us all if he turned his attention to the anti-social behaviour of some motorists.

 

[Badgers]

Can't remember the last prime time show I watched that had alcohol comsumption on it.

Fools and Horses
Morse
The Moomins

 

[Brainaddict]

So there goes one of life's harmless little pleasures.

Innit?

Hairy Bollocks to Boris

 

[ymu]

It is up to each region to decide what is acceptable public behaviour.

Here it is not acceptable behaviour for people to be drinking on public transit. This is so engrained in me that it came as a total surprise that it was acceptable in London.

This does only apply to London, right?

They brought in restricted no-drinking areas across the UK about 10 years ago, IIRC. This gave local councils the right to declare certain areas as no-drinking, but it's up to them. I can't see them telling the train companies or the airlines that they can't sell alcohol, and IME most bus companies ban eating and drinking anyway (but I've never seen this enforced - not that there are any conductors left to enforce it).

Just to reiterate, this is a ban on drinking, not on being drunk and causing problems. The latter is already covered by existing legislation. It's hard to see why it needs a whole new law, unless it's the only thing Boris could think of apart from "reach no strike agreement with Bob Crow".

 

[dream_girl]

It's hard to see why it needs a whole new law, unless it's the only thing Boris could think of apart from "reach no strike agreement with Bob Crow".

He promised to scrap bendy buses and bring back the Routemasters, I seem to remember.

I look forward to the former, but the latter would be illegal wouldn't it?

 

[ymu]

He promised to scrap bendy buses and bring back the Routemasters, I seem to remember.

I look forward to the former, but the latter would be illegal wouldn't it?

Oh yes, the other Boris' Big Idea. Even the Evening Standard noticed that the holes in that were big enough to drive, well, a Routemaster through.

Not sure about the legality, but Boris thought getting a no-strike deal with the tube unions was a plausible policy. The unions beg to differ.

Tube unions say no to a no-strike deal

London's new Mayor today had a baptism of fire over the Tube as union leaders told him a no-strike deal was not an option.

The warning puts Boris Johnson on a collision course with the leaders of the Underground's three most powerful unions.

He now faces backing down on one of his main manifesto pledges or risk a Tube strike.

Bob Crow, leader of the RMT, the largest of the Tube unions, said it would be "insane for us to surrender our democratic rights - our human right - to withdraw our labour to defend our interests".

...

Mr Johnson had declared in his election manifesto: "I will look to reduce the disruption caused by strikes on the Tube by negotiating a no-strike deal with the unions."

In return for agreeing not to strike the unions will get "the security provided by having the pay negotiations conducted by an independent arbiter", whose final decision will be binding.

 

[jæd]

It was often flagged up as a problem, or as a significant thing, as I recall. Not normal and unremarkable.

In restaurants and during meals at home, wine bottles are shown. There were *some* episodes that concentrated on alcohol abuse, but compared to the number that showed responsible drinking, these were in the minority...

 

[story]

Tube unions say no to a no-strike deal

London's new Mayor today had a baptism of fire over the Tube as union leaders told him a no-strike deal was not an option.

The warning puts Boris Johnson on a collision course with the leaders of the Underground's three most powerful unions.

He now faces backing down on one of his main manifesto pledges or risk a Tube strike.

Bob Crow, leader of the RMT, the largest of the Tube unions, said it would be "insane for us to surrender our democratic rights - our human right - to withdraw our labour to defend our interests".

...

Mr Johnson had declared in his election manifesto: "I will look to reduce the disruption caused by strikes on the Tube by negotiating a no-strike deal with the unions."

In return for agreeing not to strike the unions will get "the security provided by having the pay negotiations conducted by an independent arbiter", whose final decision will be binding.

Nice one

 

[dream_girl]

Were there more strikes under Livingstone than during the period when the Tories ran london's transport system back in the 1990s?

 

[story]

In restaurants and during meals at home, wine bottles are shown. There were *some* episodes that concentrated on alcohol abuse, but compared to the number that showed responsible drinking, these were in the minority...

Oh okay.

Well I can't pretend to be an expert (although god knows it's on all the time, anyone who watches television must know every ep by now).

 

[d.a.s.h]

It's very rare to see people on the tube with an open can or bottle in hand. Much rarer than say 20 years ago.

In fact, the very rarity of it is may be something to do with the proposed ban. Today's tube drinkers might look more 'deviant' to some. Plus the fact there's more nervousness surrounding what people get up to in public places.

 

[story]

Yeah, and Muslim extremist fundamentalist terrorists are well known for their drinking habits.

Maybe it's like using bread-crumbs to get rid of the tigers?




ETA the story







Mullah Nasrudin is out in his garden one day sprinkling bread crumbs around, and a friend comes by and says, "Mullah, why are you sprinkling those bread crumbs?" He says, " Oh, I do it to keep the tigers away." And the friend says, "But there aren't any tigers within thousands of miles of here." And Nasrudin says, "Effective, isn't it?"

 

[Brainaddict]

there's more nervousness surrounding what people get up to in public places.

Lovely society we live in these days isn't it? Some top police officer was mouthing off today about how we should learn to fear CCTV cameras. Great.

 

[Badgers]

What if you put it in a flask?
Or drink shandy bass?

 

[Crispy]

It is up to each region to decide what is acceptable public behaviour.

Here it is not acceptable behaviour for people to be drinking on public transit. This is so engrained in me that it came as a total surprise that it was acceptable in London.

This does only apply to London, right?

There are occasional bans on public drinking, on a local council basis, sometimes with time restrictions. Otherwise, there are no restrictions. All public transport is fine. Nearly all commuter and intercity trains have alcohol for sale, wether from the buffet car or the little trolley that gets wheeled down the aisle.

 

[gabi]

It's very rare to see people on the tube with an open can or bottle in hand.

Clearly you dont live in brixton Having the Academy down in my hood means that any night when theres a gig there the tube home from work is full of people necking cans of stella on the way down there...

All in good fun tho. I love having a can on the way to gigs.

 

[story]

Lovely society we live in these days isn't it? Some top police officer was mouthing off today about how we should learn to fear CCTV cameras. Great.

oh god...

Link or source please?

 

[dream_girl]

Lovely society we live in these days isn't it? Some top police officer was mouthing off today about how we should learn to fear CCTV cameras. Great.

If people fear them enough they might decide to get rid of them.

 

[story]

What if you put it in a flask?

or a brown paper bag?