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Vomit-Free Zone: New Mayor To Ban Boozing on Tube

by Zoe Strimpel
Wed, 7 May 2008

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Weekend nights in London are about to change forever: The new mayor, Boris Johnson, is banning booze on Tubes and buses from June 1. Clusters of bellowing sports fans swigging cans of Stella, dressed-up girls en route to a club clutching open bottles of bad fizz, and, of course, the classier types necking vodka and Coke from Evian bottles will have to find new ways to get in the mood. Suits me, a passenger who often dreads the late-night journey home, when people who really should have stopped drinking long before keep going — and going. Vomiting and singing are familiar bits of the nocturnal landscape on our dear city's public transport system.

The announcement of the new law coincides with reports that Mr. Johnson will bring in the crime-fighting guru, Los Angeles Chief of Police William Bratton, late of New York, to advise on cracking down on unruliness in London — toughness on crime being a key part of Mr. Johnson's Conservative Party manifesto. Mr. Bratton will help Mr. Johnson implement a zero-tolerance policy toward minor crimes, including graffiti and fare evasion.

"I firmly believe that if we drive out so-called minor crime then we will be able to get a firm grip on more serious crime," Mr. Johnson was reported as saying in the Evening Standard. Sounds like good sense. Could it be that this goon-like mayor with his ludicrous crop of blond hair might turn out to be pretty good after all? Perhaps not, but the early signs show he's trying.

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