The newly-elected Conservative mayor of London is Boris Johnson, an infamous and controversial figure in British politics whose trademark dishelved hair is an apt symbol of his “buffoonish… bumbling, self-deprecating persona”. He is best known for making sensational gaffes (for instance, writing that the country Papua New Guinea is best-known for “cannibalism and chief-killing”) and then duly issuing public apologies. These antics happened so regularly that the media suspects he courted controversy to forge his celebrity, a view that was reenforced by the relatively blooper-free mayoral race in which he narrowly defeated the popular Ken Livingstone.
Yesterday Mayor Johnson announced that one of his first acts as mayor is to ban the drinking of alcohol on public transportation in London. At first I didn’t understand… did he mean to ban alcohol from being served in commuter trains? Because surely they don’t allow people to sit in the Tube or on a bus drinking beer. I mean, this is London after all, one of the cradles of Western civilization, and in 2008, they still allow public drinking?
Apparently, yes, they do, at least until next month. Still, Johnson’s plan is not without its critics. The leader of a transportation union claimed it would be difficult to enforce, saying “Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done”.
Wow. The thing is, I don’t think that’s just British wit, I think that’s a genuine challenge.
