tube party on june 1st?
- Thread starter bluestreak
- Start date
bluestreak
HomosexualityIsStalin’sAtomBombtoDestroyAmerica
Well done guys. *slow handclap* Normally I support any activism regardless, but this whole flashmob facebook look-at-me apolitical wanking makes me fucking sick. If they had any balls they'd have done it tomorrow. But they don't. It's just an excuse to act like lairy cunts.
youre right, that said a seasoned activist whod been at liverpool street told me that it was the closest theyd seen to a full on riot in london for years, and the mood wasnt far off at edgeware road
and the middle classes kicking off against boris, you cant deny theres political capital in that somewhere
wiskey
Albatross Admirer
mindless is the word I'd use
ajdown
Posting in this thread
I'm really glad that they chose a really important issue for their first 'demonstration against the system' rather than one of these silly problems like the war in Iraq.
I bet you that 90% of the people who turned up did so because, like, it's a party, and its such a cool idea and ever so slightly rad.
Here's a few videos that have popped up.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ax5zt3kvF8w
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oUrkkuQrRN0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wm4SfcCoEVY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PX_f8L-pgvA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4qfKQoQS3lI
I notice that a lot of people there were also breaking the law by using flash photography on the tube, and videoing without a permit (which, having done both at several Network Rail locations for work purposes in the last year I know, because it's part of the 20 minute safety induction that I doubt many of them have been through either).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7429638.stm
"Seventeen people were arrested for offences such as assault, being drunk and disorderly, assaulting police, public order related offences and drug offences, BTP said.
One police vehicle was damaged and two officers assaulted and another injured.
Police also reported four assaults on train drivers and three assaults on other members of London Underground staff.
There were also "multiple instances" of Tube trains being damaged, which meant they were withdrawn from service, which in turn led to several Tube services being suspended. "
I'm actually suprised, given the crowd at Liverpool Street and the tense atmosphere, that if this was duplicated at other stations there weren't more arrests.
I really like the comment on the original website from one of the organisers: "In regards to the reports of assaults and violence, I am surprised. This did not reflect the mood of anything I saw. To the instigators of any violence, you were not members of this party, just thugs. " Like it wasn't going to be gatecrashed anyway...
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Am I alone in thinking the Bo-Jo will see the wanton destruction of the carriages and the violence of last night's party to be vindication of his policy?
ajdown
Posting in this thread
You aren't alone in thinking that, and Boris won't be alone in seeing last night as justification either.
Within 10 minutes of the Tube being shut, the heavy police presence would have told anyone who was there just for the party (and the sake of exercising a 'right' that most of them probably didn't know existed beforehand anyway, let alone having 'exercised' it*) that this thing ain't gonna happen.
*Please note that a previously non-existant explicit banning of an activity does not mean that it is has, up until that point, been a 'right'.
Yes, BTP are spinning it that way.
BBC said:
Seven assaults on Underground workers - seven unforgivable acts*.
RMT said:
Assuming, conservatively, that these are the worst three of the ten major lines, and that the Jubilee is about average, there are 5 or 6 assaults on staff on an average day on the Underground. Also unforgivable*.
We can be utterly sure that if there were more specifics of damage, they'd have been fed to the open maw of the media.
Bet you they were counting trains taken out of service for vomit as "damage". Were they taking trains out of service for ripped-down ads? oxpecker?
Seventeen arrests - and what is the normal number of arrests in the West End on a Saturday night? Even, what is the normal number of arrests on the Underground on a Saturday night?
Anyone want to call BTP and ask?
* Has to be said before I'm allowed to speak of the rest, yes?
ajdown
Posting in this thread
I'm not sure that 17 arrests, or however many arrests, are really the issue here.
It's 1,000 people turning up in one location for one specific purpose, which their original website says, meet in the 2nd carriage from the rear on the Circle Line clockwise first train out of Liverpool Street after 9pm.
Even the most ardent anti-ban supporter could see that 1000 people do not fit into one tube carriage.
There seem to have been a lot of parties, including some on the Circle Line, of little groups doing 'their own thing', which all passed off without incident. The vast majority of the problems caused last night were all due to a bunch of Facebook tossers jumping on the bandwagon for what seemed like it was going to be a party - nothing to do with protesting the alcohol ban in the slightest.
You've probably seen as many incidents on the news as I have where a party for a few friends ends up being mentioned on Facebook and loads of uninvited guests turn up and trash the place. Why did anyone think this event would be any different?
It's 1,000 people turning up in one location for one specific purpose, which their original website says, meet in the 2nd carriage from the rear on the Circle Line clockwise first train out of Liverpool Street after 9pm.
Even the most ardent anti-ban supporter could see that 1000 people do not fit into one tube carriage.
There seem to have been a lot of parties, including some on the Circle Line, of little groups doing 'their own thing', which all passed off without incident. The vast majority of the problems caused last night were all due to a bunch of Facebook tossers jumping on the bandwagon for what seemed like it was going to be a party - nothing to do with protesting the alcohol ban in the slightest.
You've probably seen as many incidents on the news as I have where a party for a few friends ends up being mentioned on Facebook and loads of uninvited guests turn up and trash the place. Why did anyone think this event would be any different?
Rereading:
A lie.
"Tube service suspended" means a line with no service, and it shows up automatically on tfl.gov.uk, which I was watching for just such eventualities.
The worst reported was about a 15-minute service gap on the Circle Line - target is 10 minutes.
BBC said:
A lie.
"Tube service suspended" means a line with no service, and it shows up automatically on tfl.gov.uk, which I was watching for just such eventualities.
The worst reported was about a 15-minute service gap on the Circle Line - target is 10 minutes.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I'm taking current reports with a pinch of salt to be honest.
In any case - having lots of people descend on the Tube with booze specifically to drink it and get drunk on the Tube is precisely what doesn't normally happen. The results clearly can't be used as an argument either pro or anti (perhaps slightly pro, people could say "well even when we were trying to get drunk we were fine, what's wrong with an odd can", presuming they were sensible).
But argument at this point is irrelevant anyway, so that's not really a criticism. It's been decided politically, the press support the line according to their own agendas, and this was just a reaction to that not some sort of "contribution" to a "debate" that never happened in the first place.
In any case - having lots of people descend on the Tube with booze specifically to drink it and get drunk on the Tube is precisely what doesn't normally happen. The results clearly can't be used as an argument either pro or anti (perhaps slightly pro, people could say "well even when we were trying to get drunk we were fine, what's wrong with an odd can", presuming they were sensible).
But argument at this point is irrelevant anyway, so that's not really a criticism. It's been decided politically, the press support the line according to their own agendas, and this was just a reaction to that not some sort of "contribution" to a "debate" that never happened in the first place.
ajdown
Posting in this thread
This might just be terminology. Services 'from Liverpool Street' were suspended for several hours, with trains running straight through.
I'm wondering what imprecise phrase BTP Press Office used that was calculated to get the clueless Press Association hack to write "services suspended".
Which didn't happen. It's a lie.
Stations were closed. They said that separately.
We were at Kings Cross at 9pm, and they were announcing trains weren't stopping at Liverpool St because of overcrowding.
The Circle Line ran happily for the next hour; I know because we were on it.
We then left, went back to Kings Cross, had a pint of Betjeman in the Betjeman, left to find the alarm on at the underground (impressive "you can here this on the surface" alarm) and lots of police arriving.
A 73 bus took us up to the Angel and the next beer
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
It's a shame they left such a mess - no excuse for that - haven't previous Circle Line parties been more responsible affairs?
Maybe it was the influx of Facebook twerps who made the mess.
Maybe it was the influx of Facebook twerps who made the mess.
ajdown
Posting in this thread
Yes, I remember reading on the SH site about the last one that they took along bags and helped clear the train before they left.
It's these lightweighters, who think drinking and partying is Pimms on the lawn with Tarquin and Annabel, and that hardship is when the battery on their mobile runs out, that were pretty much all who turned up for the event at Liverpool Street last night.
I dare say, for most of them, the majority of the night was spent crying to daddy on their mobile phones trying to persuade him to call the family solicitor to get them out of the lockdown.
Gixxer1000
cant wheelie a shaftie :(
Ok then the service from those closed stations was suspended then wasnt it
Spin your way round that.
The flaw in your supposition is that mobiles don't get a signal on the underground.
trashpony
Hag
It wasn't just facebook - london paper and the other rag both promoted it as something fun to do last night (after a front page saying chaos was expected)
ajdown
Posting in this thread
I was referring to the 1000 or so Facebookers that turned up and were 'locked in' at Liverpool Street on the main concourse, where you can get a signal.
Plus, of course, lots of bits of the Underground actually aren't, and there are places you can get a signal. Moorgate, Farrington and Barbican are three that immediately spring to mind.
It turned out that he'd been framed.
0/10 - Tory petrolhead boy.
The issue is more that the ban is a bit of political showboating designed to appeal to people outside of london. It's the best kind of policy for politicians, one that addresses a problem that doesnt exist (and can therefore claim to have been solved).
Why the organisers of the tube party didnt do it the day after the ban is beyond me. It doesnt seemed to have achieved anything except some jolly japes and a few trashed train carriages.
Lolz
Well they have a bar on the great North-eastern from Kings cross to Newcastle so I don't know where you're getting your information from.
Gixxer1000
cant wheelie a shaftie :(
ajdown
Posting in this thread
As I understand the law, if the train itself has a restaurant/buffet carriage or trolley service that serves alcohol, then you're allowed to consume alcohol on that train whether you bought it on the train or not. If the train does not have these facilities on-board then you are not allowed to consume alcohol.
Unfortunately, this is rarely enforced because, in the majority of cases, the guards on the trains just can't be bothered with the hassle from people that think they have the right to drink alcohol on any train when they don't.
In practice, if you're just quietly having a drink, then you'll be left alone. If you're noisy, abusive and causing trouble, then the Transport Police (if called) will meet the train somewhere and remove the troublemakers or confiscate their alcohol.
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