Going underground
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 To read the newspapers you might be forgiven for thinking there was drunken riot on the Underground the other night as thousands of revellers descended on the Circle Line to protest against the ban on drinking alcohol on the Tube.
I wasn't there but Suzy Dean of the Manifesto Club was and she reports that "Boris’s booze ban seems to have annoyed a whole spectrum of people – from football fans who will no longer be able to enjoy a pre-match beer on their way to the stadium, to hen parties, students and city boys who like a tipple when they travel". More important:
The ban follows various other restrictions on our behaviour, all of which have been introduced in the name of making our public spaces more pleasant – from the smoking ban brought in last year to the ban on the wearing of hoodies in certain shopping centres. Instead of tolerating this increasing invasion of our public space by the authorities, we should stand up and say that public space is always more pleasant if we are free to behave in it in ways that we see fit.
Full article HERE.
Simon Clark
Meet Suzy Dean and other members of the Manifesto Club at the Forest party on June 24.
Reader Comments (5)
Amazing that all these people got together to protest about not being able to have a drink on the underground, but I don't recall anyone getting together to protest at no longer being able to smoke encloses places, as of last July, or, for that matter, years ago when smoking was banned on public transport, etc.
I wonder how many will protest when eating in a restaurant is banned, or drinking in a bar is banned? Sounds stupid you may say, but then 20 years ago so did the idea of a smoking ban!
I believe that the party (as it was reported) was organised over the internet. Why haven't we smokers organised a similar protest? Is there, in reality, no real protest against the ban and those of us who post regularly on this site just a few voices in the wilderness who might as well stop wasting our time?
We moaned about the Labour Government making over 3,000 new criminal laws and what's the first thing that Boris does? A new ban.
Joyce, I think the reason for no big 'poll tax style' protest from smokers is not that things will never happen, it is just slower than some of us would have expected. Decades of indoctrination, especially so called passive smoking, with restrictions gradually chipping away at our freedom, all left us numb.
When the ban was announced on 14th February 2006 (my 55th Birthday), I think the majority of smokers just thought, OK, I will have to go outside the pub to have a smoke. We had been drip fed that this was successful in Ireland. Most of us never bothered to look into what this SBE really was going to mean, we just thought we would have a special area outside. We were used to not smoking in most public areas and places of work already, and transport.
I think many people, like me, went out on 1st July 2008, and felt like we had been punched in the stomach. Big ugly signs everwhere, and discovering that the area outside pubs had to be open to the elements.
People like me immediately went to the internet. We found out that, as well as Forest which we knew about, there were other groups, like Freedom2Choose and Forces and many others. I had never even visited Forest's website before! I, and others, were getting enlightening information from these sites, and being directed to genuine research results about this passive smoking. I, just like many smokers, had believed the passive smoking propaganda, (just like believing there were WMD in Iraq).
It may have had a slow start, but because of the internet, things are gaining momentum quickly. I have noticed more people beginning to question what has been done. Those who work in the media, and were also baffled by the enormity and consequences of the SBE, are getting empowered as they realise more people are supporting them, and things are beginning to be said. The obsessed anti smoker is not feeling so brave anymore.
Goodness, that was a long one, I just don't want anyone to feel defeated, the fun is only just starting!
Great post Timbone - I truly hope you are right. I am sick and tired of people telling me that it is a done thing, so get used to it and stop griping! It makes me so mad! I usually say they are the reason this country has gone to the dogs, too many people like them prepared to lay down and be trampled over without even making a murmur! Enough of the stiff upper lip brigade who will just carry on rewardless, it is time to make a stand and show these power hungry idiots that enough is enough and we are not prepared to take any more. They have grown in strength due to the complete apathy of the majority of the British people and it is about time that those apathetic people got off their backsides, opened their eyes and saw, for once, just where this government has led us - it is not a pretty sight and the longer they are allowed to get away with one seemingly petty law after another, the stronger they will get until we are all just numbers and puppets! They do not like us thinking or making decisions for ourselves, it challenges them too much - they want puppets that they pull the strings of so they can direct us where they want.
It is not as daft as it sounds. On Question Time last night when car taxation was mentioned David Milliband commented on how it was not just for the money but to regulate people's behaviour! Whether that slipped out or not I can't say, but on public TV that is what he said so we should be in no doubt now that this is what the government are up to, dictating to us how we should behave and it is starting with what and how we should purchase our transport. Well that is sort of second I suppose to the smoking ban - the denormalisation of smokers - another behavioural measure.