Sunday, June 01, 2008
BoJoWatch: As the Last Orders party on the Circle Line draws to a close (and Liverpool Street station reopens after a convenient shutdown), so Boris's alcohol ban slaps down on public transport in the capital. It's a cheap and easy ban to impose, although rather more expensive to enforce. We now face the ridiculous situation whereby tube trains leaving central London termini must be dry, whereas inter city services will happily sell you a can, a beaker or a bottle. That's everybody's civil liberties curtailed so that a bit of minor anti-social behaviour can be quashed. But what also annoys me about this ban are the posters recently splashed all over the tube, bus & DLR network. And in particular this slogan...
Now I'm sorry, but that's BLATANTLY UNTRUE. This ban will make some people's journey more pleasant. Evening Standard journalists, for example, or nervous Londoners who mistakenly believe that every public transport journey might end in rampant criminality. But it's not going to improve journeys for alcoholics, nor indeed for sane normal Londoners who like the odd beer on the way into the West End. And it's not going to make my journey more pleasant. I don't get upset by the sight of a bloke sipping lager from a can, neither do I live in fear of bumping into a wine-swigger on the buses. And if my journey won't be more pleasant, then it's not true that everyone's journey will be. Boris's anti-alcohol slogan is a gross oversimplification, a logical untruth, a lie. I'll not drink to that.
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