Reading this article I couldn't help thinking of my latest trip to Birmingham recently. Having a post business dinner stroll in the City centre (10PMish) I was amazed by the number of half and completely drunk girls (age 16-25) I saw stumbling out of the pubs, saloons and glitzy cafes, wearing the lightest of clothes despite the freckin cold. I've seen my share of drunk males many times being part of them, but I guess I'll never get used to the sight of that (drunk females)? Will these new pub regulations improve this all. Personally I don't think so...
once alcohol goes on sale 24 hours a day doesn’t make a great deal of sense
I never understood the tight laws we have here (Blighty) on drinking. I spent alot of my teens early twenties in countries where they don't have this stupid last call and everyone lines up their drinks to see how much they can consume before they have to leave. In Europe I rarely have seen locals pouring out of pubs and clubs drunk it is usually the Brits who cause the embarresment abroad.
With the ability to drink as and when I am sure people will start to pace themselves a little more knowing that they do no need to down their pints to get the last one down before the doors are locked.
As for opening the museums I would love the idea of it, if I was in town with not alot to do and to be honest I find sitting in a pub for hours on end not that entertaining even with a good crowd there is only so much you can drink, I like to split the evening up with various acitivities so a visit to a gallery would be enlightening and educational
Biggest problem we have is companies targetting kids. Spain and France have noticed an increase since they have had UK style products and heavy advertising campaigns.
It sickens me to see drunken women on their own. When I started drinking in my teens and forever on, if one of the group got twisted, some of the others would make sure they were OK and get them home - I lost count over the years at the number of people I stood around with and dragged home. I did it because they were my mates, and you knew they would do the same for you. I'm not saying all men are like that - I'm sure there's a few tw*ts arounds who think it's funny to leave their friend lying somewhere puking, but I think it'd be the exception rather than the rule.
As a result, I hate walking home on the weekend and running across women on their own who are too drunk to even stand, vulnerable to whatever happens to come their way. How can you leave someone in that state, male or female?
Bear11, you cant. Well, I couldn’t and haven’t. I have been walking home from my local before now and ended up in an ambulance after calling one for sum idiot that iv found chocking on his own vomit. Why would I do that? Because I’m human. Anyone that could walk past them and ignore them isn’t. He’s an idiot for doing so, don’t get me wrong, but I couldn’t leave them, male or female.
I’m 21, and have never had any problem with going out and getting that drunk that I’v no idea what was going on. I know my limits and what I can take (you cant go flying with a hangover either! ) But then again, I have always been allowed a glass of wine at home or a bottle of beer since being in my early teens and so the "novelty" of getting drunk passed along time ago when I was at home and able to just go to bed. A lot of my friends are the same, there just isn’t that need to get drunk because we did it at 15 and 16 in our own houses where it can be controlled. So when you come to go out of a night time into a bar or club you don’t want to get drunk because its nothing new and all you get is a red bank balance (reminds me of flying! ) and a sore head.
It’s just a sheer embarrassment to see what my age group any younger age groups are doing with regards to alcohol. Have a good time, have a few drinks, but leave it at that. At the end of the day, you’re poisoning yourself. Look at George Best.
We started drinking in 10th grade in high school. Occasionally we would pop down to the local tavern at lunch for a couple of brews. Had to make sure we avoided a couple of teachers as they were of the same habit.
I remember one geometry class after lunch when Mr. Evans started off by drawing a circle on the blackboard and said - "Now this triangle....."
And another time as I was preparing to write up a solution to a particularly difficult deduction he was wiping off the entire board as his solution took 40 or 50 lines.... I solved it in 6 lines and got told it was the definitive solution. He wrote it down in his little book. Had never seen that before.
As a father of sons and a daughter, and having experienced it from "the sober parental" side, this sort of thing worries me greatly. Last year a girl actually froze to death on her way home, only a few hundred yards away from her house.
Not too long ago our youngest son went out "for a few drinks in town" with his friends. He was supposed to be on the last bus home but he didn't come home so we eventually went out in the car to look for him. He did finally appear (almost legless) at the correct bus stop but had no recollection of how he turned up there two and a half hours after the last bus had gone!!
I'm not sure that changing the drinking laws will prevent it. Education might but I don't think there is an easy fix. My son has now been given some more "education"
Apparently, the issue is not what you'd call recent : see here
Quote:
Looking back only 700 years, London had over 1,300 alehouses - one for every 50 people living in the city.
I'm puzzled to say the least by the interpretation of the results of the poll about extended hours
Quote:
New laws 'won't affect drinking'
Nearly 70% of young drinkers believe new extended licensing laws will not affect the amount of alcohol they consume, according to a BBC survey.
In total, 29% say they will drink more and 2% less when the laws, which could see some pubs opening for 24 hours a day, come into force on Thursday.
A little less than one third saying they will drink more is not exactly what I would call 'not affecting drinking'. This is not a vote where the majority makes the law everyone follows, that's going to be hundreds of thousands drinking more
The atmosphere most of these young guys & gals are growing up in, coupled with the abundance of chemicals... it must be hard for them to survive it. We all remember peer pressure etc, now with internet chat rooms & text msgs, these poor sods are having to get hard or drown at an early age.
At this moment I am ashamed of the attitude of the media, pub co's and some of the drinks companies. We are 2 or 3 generations away from people drinking with a sensible European drinking culture. Apart from an ability to socialise well, I also own a very successful and small drinking establishment. The secret of running it well - Over 21's only Knowledge of your customer base Zero Tolerance - nobody is welcome who is drunk, swears, abusive, a leach or is on a mission to get visit the planet Zanussi.
Customers expect a good atmosphere and that is what we give them. No alcopop discounts etc. The only problem is the Landlord!
There are pub companies who target the underage and the youth market and these companies are a disgrace. They make good landlords and businessmen pryors. The new licensing laws are a good thing, most will agree, the government have just made a pigs ear of implementing it.
I hope that it hits the nightclubs hard, the trouble we hear about is not at 11.30 it is generally at around 2 to 3 am. I would also suggest that drug abuse is a major factor in the problems of violence, road accidents and people being taken to hospital. Yet the government, Police and nightclub staff tend to stay away from this area as the have either no control, they are covered by a protection racket, or they are on the take.
As for us landlords wanting to stay open as late as possible, let me give you some reasons why we won't.
- Consumption drops markedly after 11pm as people have been throwing it down their Gregory's all night to beat the curfew - many still will.
- If they are not drinking the staff still have to be paid.
- When you wake up with a hangover, we have to get up and do it all again the following day, not at 10 or 11am but at 8.
- Your dilusional if people expect my staff in the early hours to deal with drunkards and people who tells us in a slurring voice how we can run our business better.
Market forces will determine how long pubs will open for - If they are not spending then they ain't commin in.
From a Johnny Foreigners point of view, the problem is that noone in the UK seems to be tackling the disease, only the symptoms. Drunken Englishmen is, sadly, a fact of life and is something most people have experienced if they've travelled anywhere in the Med, or have visited any English city. Sure, youth from all over the world goes out and gets shytefaced from time to time, but the English in particular have severe problems controlling their alcohol intake and their subsequent alcohol fuelled temper.
I'm not suggesting that the answer is readily available, but it is a cultural problem more than anything. On those ground alone, allowing for 24 hour pubs will send all the wrong signals. So therefore a slow introduction of a sensible drinking culture would be highly benificial before opening for 24 hour pubbing. Cultural change, however, is not something you can achieve by legislation.
I live in an upmarket area, and most of my friends are reasonably well-off and have responsible jobs and normal families. Nevertheless it is becoming more and common for people to go to a party, or sport event, or whatever with the express intention of getting as hammered as they can as quickly as they can. Old-style dinner parties don't happen very much, and the Sunday-moning pub conversation is often focused on how many empties have just gone into the bottle bank.
I have been walking home from my local before now and ended up in an ambulance after calling one for sum idiot that iv found chocking on his own vomit. Why would I do that? Because I'm human. Anyone that could walk past them and ignore them isn't. He's an idiot for doing so, don't get me wrong, but I couldn't leave them, male or female.
Stue thank go you did. I lost a close cousin who was 12 years older to me in this way. He had a massive drinking problem and went out to get some milk! Infact it turns out he went to get more drink and it all stemmed with him going to the local every night to have a few with his mates. Problems in a marriage with a mother who did not recognize he had a problem and a wife too busy with the kids etc to see it and hey presto someone dies at the age of 42 when he should not have. When they found him the police said if someone had walked passed and helped he would be alive.
My youngest brother went to a party at the age of 16 got drunk and had a reaction. His life was saved by a quick thinking teenager who though a drunk should not be so quiet.
So what is the answer? Educate all of us in the dangers of drinking too much. Target the producers and the media who push it like they have with smoking and start to show the shock adverts which show the darker side to what drink does! They show it for drink drivers so why not all the rest of what can happen to a woman too drunk to walk home.
So is the answer to an age old problem that seems to be getting worse, make it part of the school curriculum and start at an early age, kids grow up seeing the effects of it then maybe they won't do it. But how many kids hear about the effects of smoking and what percentage never try it?
Last year a girl actually froze to death on her way home, only a few hundred yards away from her house.
Its nothing new though. I once found a girl in the same state as the one in the picture, lying on one a tomb in a churchyard. If I hadn't happened along she'd have died of exposure too...
) But then again, I have always been allowed a glass of wine at home or a bottle of beer since being in my early teens and so the "novelty" of getting drunk passed along time ago when I was at home and able to just go to bed. A lot of my friends are the same, there just isn’t that need to get drunk because we did it at 15 and 16 in our own houses where it can be controlled. So when you come to go out of a night time into a bar or club you don’t want to get drunk because its nothing new and all you get is a red bank balance (reminds me of flying! 
