THE AGE OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT
As from the 1st of June, it will be illegal to consume alcohol on the London Underground, buses trams and the Docklands Light Railway. I suppose that most peoples reaction will be either of indifference, 'it doesn't affect me,' or relief that public drunkenness on the transport system is being tackled. However, legislation to deal with the nuisance caused by anti-social behaviour already exists. Public drunkenness has always been an offence whether in the form of ’drunk and incapable' or 'drunk and disorderly,' all other forms of nuisance can be accommodated under the general umbrella of breach of the peace. Rather than place the resources required to deal with the minority who make a drunken nuisance of themselves the new London Mayor switches to the now current default position of a blanket ban.
As I say this may seem like a small sacrifice, I can only remember drinking on the tube once, some time ago. I had been with a group of people helping a friend move into an upstairs flat. The work had been hard and sweaty. On the way back to the tube we had brought a few cans of cold beer and drank them on the way home. The memory is a pleasant one, a cold beer drunk after hard labour very pleasurable. From June the 1st this will be an offence. Because of the behaviour of a few all must be denied. We live in the age of collective punishment. This instinct, a mixture of authoritarianism and Puritanism, has a long history in British culture. The worst excesses of this position can be found in the smoking ban, thus as you stand exposed to all the elements on the platform of Wolverhampton station badly in need of a cigarette you are informed that smoking is not allowed on any part of this station! This, of course, has nothing to do with passive smoking but represents a naked assertion of power and control under the watchful eye of a nearby CCTV camera.
Most of these bans rely on the long-standing instinct of the British public to stay within the law. However what will be next for a ban, chewing gum, takeaway food, MP3 players, women who wear overpowering perfume or fat people who straddle two seats at a time? When will we finally have enough of these blanket prohibitions and start to ignore these illiberal and often irrational restrictions? If enough people ignore them these blanket bans they will start to become unworkable and will have to be dismantled.
As I say this may seem like a small sacrifice, I can only remember drinking on the tube once, some time ago. I had been with a group of people helping a friend move into an upstairs flat. The work had been hard and sweaty. On the way back to the tube we had brought a few cans of cold beer and drank them on the way home. The memory is a pleasant one, a cold beer drunk after hard labour very pleasurable. From June the 1st this will be an offence. Because of the behaviour of a few all must be denied. We live in the age of collective punishment. This instinct, a mixture of authoritarianism and Puritanism, has a long history in British culture. The worst excesses of this position can be found in the smoking ban, thus as you stand exposed to all the elements on the platform of Wolverhampton station badly in need of a cigarette you are informed that smoking is not allowed on any part of this station! This, of course, has nothing to do with passive smoking but represents a naked assertion of power and control under the watchful eye of a nearby CCTV camera.
Most of these bans rely on the long-standing instinct of the British public to stay within the law. However what will be next for a ban, chewing gum, takeaway food, MP3 players, women who wear overpowering perfume or fat people who straddle two seats at a time? When will we finally have enough of these blanket prohibitions and start to ignore these illiberal and often irrational restrictions? If enough people ignore them these blanket bans they will start to become unworkable and will have to be dismantled.
