London’s recent booze ban on the underground train (tube) and buses has sparked riots. The London Booze Ban was brought in saw people arrested and closed down tube stations while revelers took the last chance to drink on the tube.
The booze ban may sound over-due to Americans:but England has a long history of tolerance to alcohol in public. Although the climate hardly encourages it the English embrace the concept of street side eating and drinking as well as beer gardens. The slightest excuse for a summer will see the beer’s broken out on the beaches from Blackpool to Brighton. The London Booze Ban is a sad reflection on the creeping Americanization of Europe, especially England. The French have always had wine wherever there is food and included children in drinking with their families from an early age. Who has the worst problems with alcohol abuse especially among the young: England as they introduce counter productive measures such as the London Booze Ban. The same thing will happen no time soon in the Paris Metro or the Madrid suburban train system.

Introducing blanket booze bans always spark reaction and just serve to push alcohol underground and out of parental and other control. Its a silly approach which appears to fail over and over again and yet Americans and their followers seem stuck on repeating its failure. Why don’t we look to the European attitude to wine and alcohol and find a new way of incorporating it as an essential part of life not a “forbidden pleasure” - which sparks the reaction seen in the London Booze Ban

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