Some may have heard that the London underground network is now booze-free. As of midnight Sunday 1 June you can no longer have an alcoholic beverage open on any Tube train. Some rather interesting people decided to get together Saturday night to ‘celebrate’ the last evening you could freely drink on the train. Seventeen of these interesting people ended up arrested for various offences while the rest of the thousands or so that showed up to Liverpool Street station proceeded to trash the trains and stations in which they travelled.
I agreed in principle with Boris’s ban of booze but also agreed with another comment that it’s only going to hurt those enforcing it. Four Tube workers were assaulted Saturday night during the party and this was supposed to be a calm celebration/protest for the ban; technically a ‘we can behave responsibly’ thing. However, it turned out to be a self-perpetuating philosophy: drink = bad behaviour. It gave credence to Boris’s ban.
It doesn’t matter now so much; what’s done is done. The drunken morons have had their fun and will, hopefully, abide by the rules from here on out, though I highly doubt it. They’ll find interesting ways to sneak the booze on to the trains and then there will be the potential for more assaults on Tube staff as the secret drunkards get their booze taken away.
One final note regarding Saturday’s antics: I can’t get the idea of where people relieved themselves out of my head. I know how much I have to go when I drink; where did they go to use the toilet? My God the Tube must have wreaked something awful Sunday morning of piss and plonk.
UPDATE: Since I wrote this, the BBC has published this article alleging that the destruction and assaults were far worse than the four reported and spoken of above.