# the mayor of london kicks ass **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 16, 2000, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441 "2000-11-16T12:33:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/1 "2000-11-16T12:33:13Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2000/TRAVEL/NEWS/11/15/britain.trafalgar.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2000/TRAVEL/NEWS/11/15/britain.trafalgar.ap/index.html) The disgusting, air-rodent infested trafalger square may FINALLY be cleaned up. For the life of me I have never understood why sane people would feed these fat, constantly pooping vermin, let alone let them land on their bodies. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/2 "2000-11-16T13:00:40Z")
I’m all for clearing out the pigeons from Trafalgar Square (and everywhere else in London, for that matter). What I can’t understand is why Ken Livingstone is complaining about whose statue goes where. Hasn’t he got enough to worry about? Like crime, public transport, education, and defeating Tony Blair’s evil minions? jr8 ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/3 "2000-11-16T13:06:37Z")
\*ucking flying rodents, hate the bastards. IMHO, Bruvver Ken walks on water …at the moment. Pigeon pie is rather nice with good seasoning and a light, slightly crisp crust. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/4 "2000-11-16T13:25:44Z")
All the world seems in tune on a spring afternoon, When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park. Every Sunday you’ll see my sweetheart and me As we poison the pigeons in the park. When they see us coming, the birdies all try and hide, But they still go for peanuts when coated in cyanide. The sun’s shining bright, everything seems alright, When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park. We’ve gained notoriety, and caused much anxiety, In the Audobon Society with our games. They call it impiety and lack of propriety, And quite a variety of unpleasant names. But it’s not against any religion, To want to dispose of a pigeon! So if Sunday you’re free, why don’t you come with me, And we’ll poison the pigeons in the park. And maybe we’ll do in a squirrel or two, while we poison the pigeons in the park. We’ll murder them all amidst laughter and merriment, Except for the few we take home to experiment. My pulse will be quickening with each drop of strychnine We feed to a pigeon - it just takes a smidgeon To poison a pigeon in the park - Tom Lehrer (as if you didn’t know that!) ---
**Author:** ![McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19adc/32.png) [@McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2000, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/5 "2000-11-16T17:27:15Z")
I think it’s pretyt sad. Yes, Trafalgar square will be a cleaner place but it will have lost a bit of its character ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/6 "2000-11-19T19:33:40Z")
My history professor Niall Ferguson is quoted on that page! And I saw him the day that page went up! Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/7 "2000-11-19T22:12:13Z")
Um, let me see if I understand this. Live pigeons are unsightly and carry diseases … so the idea is to convert them all into _dead pigeons_? Sounds like this plan could use more thinking through. ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/8 "2000-11-21T02:48:34Z")
It was really cool - here in Redwood City, California we have a shopping center with tons of the beasties, so the mall folks hired a pest control company that got out this poison that is supposed to make the pigeons sick, but not kill them. The idea is they eat the poison, get sick, and never come back to the place they got the poison. The shopping center is about 700 yards from the quaint downtown area. Apparently, they got the dosage wrong, and pigeons started falling from the sky all over town. It was reminiscent of the WKRP Thanksgiving episode. The pigeons would hit the ground and twitch, then the humane society or county animal control started coming around and euthanizing all the seriously injured pigeons. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mayor-of-london-kicks-ass/41441/9 "2000-11-21T10:09:38Z")
There a guy with a (trained) hawk who does pigeon control for various London businesses (I understand he does the MI6 building, and I’ve seen him elsewhere as well). All he does is show up, the hawk flies around for a bit, and the pigeons mysteriously disappear for a few days (I should point out for the clue-impaired that the hawk doesn’t eat them; they just flee at the first sight of the hawk). And all the little sparrows and wrens hide in the foliage peeping madly in what I can only assume is the avian equaivalent of “Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”. 🙂 Maybe we need a few predatory birds for Trafalgar Square. Of course, who knows where the pigeons would go next? jr8