Drinking and Licensing

[karohemd]

A political post, whoa.

Last night I caught parts of the Panorama program about the drinking problems in inner cities with some very disturbing but realistic footage of drunken muppets.

The consensus seemed to be that extending the license will lead to even more drinking and the current situation will turn into a real nightmare.
I don't think so. Currently, everybody tries to get as much drinking in as possible before closing time. If that time is longer/later, it might not be that bad.

However, nobody on the program (at least not while I watched) saw the real problem that needs to be tackled: the people getting drunk.

The average pub in Germany closes at midnight, in cities even at 2 and later on weekends. Some big cities are even open 24 hours. Is there a major problem? No.
Of course, people drink but the whole "drinking until you fall over/don't know what you're doing" attitude seems to be a very British thing.

Just another typical example of trying to screw around with the symptons as apposed to looking at the causes.

I'll never understand this country.

Comments

British thing?

[kyrthira.livejournal.com]

Ohhh no it's not. The US does it, and does it with style.

....Or something like that. Nevertheless, it's still pathetic.

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I don't think I'll ever understand this country either. I'm not quite sure why people who can change things don't actually try and change them and instead just continously muck things up or say something will never work without even trying.

[suave-steve.livejournal.com]

Becasue politically it is a lot easier, cheaper and gets easier resulst to try a quick fox than address real social problems.

[caffeine-fairy.livejournal.com]

"The British drink like they think someone is going to take it away from them." (Wilde, I think).

You have a point. I don't understand the obsession with alcohol that some people have. I can only assume that it's something to do with the way that people are introduced to alcohol as children, that it's something a bit mysterious and adult. Mind you, I was given watered wine from being quite small, and I drink like a pissed fish, so what do I know?

I'm guessing until it becomes socially unacceptable to be falling down drunk in public (and it can be done - 10 years ago it was acceptable to smoke in offices), we will go on this way.

[a1exxandra.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - it seems strange to me. I do drink, but very rarely get that drunk; yet several of my friends and colleagues do every time they go out. Reading a recent article in Marie Claire about drinks promotions targeted at young women (buy 2 large glasses of wine, get one free - so two rounds for 2 and that's a bottle of wine each), the relative price of alcohol being cheaper than it was 30 years ago and the fact that people are turning more and more to higher aBV drinks makes it unlikely that things are going to get better - tackling these sorts of things will make more difference than changing the licencing laws, people still go out to nightclubs which open later and get staggeringly drunk.....

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

And because people will always say 'oh, its not ME that that applies to - it's the OTHERS who give drinking a bad name.....'

It is almost impossible to legislate against a certain behaviour without hitting the 'its my RIGHT to smoke/drink/have unprotected sex/drive without a belt/bike without a helmet' - it's only when punitive laws are brought into play that people will stop.

Now how about 24 hour drinking and fines for drunken behaviour, same as driving 'errors'. Hmmm, how about drinking licences? ;)

[xora.livejournal.com]

a) make street furniture much more deadly.

b) Extend licensing hours

c) NHS no longer deals with drunk cases, they are just thrown into a cell to die/sober up!

A very mean way to fix the drink till you drop problem.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Yep and
d) introduce the law currently considered about that it's illegal to be inebriated in public

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

There seems to be an underlying assumption that drunk=happy and more drunk = more happy, even though the same people who think this will assault people, fall over and injure themselves, cry hysterically etc when intoxicated. This seems to be programmed in from the early teens when hearing other people talk about how wonderful it is to be drunk.

It's a fantastic ability of the mind to do this: other examples include the illusion that having a baby will make a woman continuously happy despite not sleeping and having to spend all day every day with a being that has no capability to be interesting whatsoever, and the illusion that a car with a bigger engine will get you to your destination faster in any area of the country including the middle of London. People believe exactly what the media tell them and don't even know that's how it got there.

[xora.livejournal.com]

Well its already illegal to be served at a pub when inebriated, so how do these peopel get so drunk?

Maybe these pubs with the drinks promotions should actually refuse to sell when someone can no longer order?

[xora.livejournal.com]

Not that I can get high horsey, I have spent my time being far too drunk for my own good, and sometimes I wish I had been thrown out!

[zenmeisterin.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly approve of a)
c) I'd modify to lowered priorities (like smokers have lower priorities for spare lungs)

[pokchop.livejournal.com]

In the States, it's technically illegal to be drunk in public. But it's a slap on the wrist for punishment. It's also technically illegal to serve anyone who's visably drunk...but that's only inforced in extreme cases when someone wants the bar to take responsiblity for a patron's distaster afterwards.

It's all the Egyptian's fault. Being pansys and making beer as opposed to drinking nasty Nile water straight - I believe they drank so much it altered their DNA. It probably wasn't even spiraled like that before they started binging on the Pyramids. Human DNA's just had a bad case of the spins ever since. That's why the need to drink so much, to keep it the current shape.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I love that theory!

Hear hear

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

This attitude ingrained in the culture and that needs to be tackled.

"when hearing other people talk about how wonderful it is to be drunk".

*nods*
And this is what I don't get. I've been overly drunk in a way that I was missing bits of the night and threw up only once as it wasn't something I wanted to repeat. It's not fun in any way. Being tipsy is cool and nobody has any problems with that but as soon as you lose control over your behaviour, you need to stop.

I'm far from being teetotal but I know when to stop and it's very easy to do.

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

I like the spiky street furniture option :)

I dunno - personally I don't like being hammered and usually drive to socialise. But then, I grew up with alcohol not being a big deal, to the utter horror of my host parent in the US when I went there on exchange :)