Pretty much as soon as the free London papers got hold of the story it was plain that the last night’s drinking on the Tube would be rather more crowded and rather less civilised that might otherwise have been the case. As it turned out, myself, the Tory Troll, Sunny Hundal and others spent the evening discussing politics in a pub in South London and only ventured onto the Tube system, armed with open containers of alcohol, at gone 11pm when it was already obvious that something bad was going on. That my Piccadilly Line train home (self still with open container of alcohol at gone midnight, so sue me) skipped Gloucester Road station on the way home was indicative of this, as was the Circle Line being, er, suspended clockwise (due to a ‘customer incident’, no less). The BBC’s story rather reinforces the ‘let’s get pissed’ image rather than the ‘bollocks to Boris’ advocated by our brief Northern Line sojourn. So be it. The irony of course is that banning drinking on the tube probably concentrated several months worth of incident into one night. Bet we’re all feeling safer now, eh?
Still, we had a highly enjoyable evening of Liberal Conspiracy, including a number of Tories and similar right-wingers. Not often I get the opportunity to braindump on people and not have them run screaming from the room.
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I was in two minds about going to the Tube party, and couldn’t really afford the time this weekend anyway unfortunately. But I do wish I could have spared a few hours to join you all in the pub – sounds like a great evening! If any future political brain dump evenings are on the cards, let me know (via e-mail, if we don’t want Chunters to turn up…
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Shame the Tube party went a bit far, although in the context of such a huge event, 17 people going far enough to get arrested is a pretty small minority so I’m glad it wasn’t any worse. And as you say, the way I see it, Boris is partly responsible for the goings-on last night: I hope he’s proud.
Yes the tube revelling is now being spun as a reason why Boris’s policy was right, which was obviously going to happen. Still, it was worth it for a good bit of hard-drinking and some even harder brain-dumping.
I still have to drink crouched behind hedges or skulking in the back rooms of pubs. Glad that it was fun.
Oh, and who saw the Manchester riots and thought “Yes, in the interests of public safety we’ll ban football”.
To be fair, British clubs were banned from European football for years and there are lots of rules around travel when important games are on, I think the police can proscribe alcohol on certain trains for instance.
Damn, my ignorance of football emerges even when using it as a convenient allegory.
Good to meet with you guys too! Ben, I don’t have your email address and you didn’t get in touch when I put up the post on LC… sorry mate. Will let you know next time though.
Heh, no, I’m afraid that I’d have compromised you all. I’m seventeen.
I meant that I have to find more creative places to gather “so da pigz don’t catch us awul. lol.”
Incidentally, a question for any legal minds - the ban has been introduced by changing the conditions of carriage. Does this mean it doesn’t apply to season ticket holders who, after all, paid for their tickets some months ago, under different conditions?
Good question, I suppose it comes down to whether a new contract under the C of Cs is implied each time you use the network or whether there’s a contract starting when you purchase the ticket and agree to abide by the C of Cs. If the C of Cs themselves at time of purchasing a season ticket say ‘these may be amended at any time given sufficient notice yada…’ then that’s where it happens.
Does anybody else think that, if this had happened 20-odd years ago, it’s fairly likely that the “protest party” would have included our very own Mayor-to-be Johnson and his mates from the Bullingdon Club?