A successful policy?
Peter Hoskin 8:50am
Apparently, the Government's 24-hour drinking laws have been a success. So much so, in fact, that a review will today mark them a solid 7-out-of-10 for delivering "excellent" results in many areas.
Why, then, do the statistics paint a different picture? In the 12 police forces that keep the relevant records, alcohol-related anti-social behaviour has risen by around 46 percent since the new laws were introduced.
Throw in massive increases in alcohol-related illnesses and injuries, and it becomes clearer that 24 hour drinking is a part of the problem rather than the solution. I doubt a "tougher" system of yellow and red cards for landlords and shop-owners will do anything to change this.
What do CoffeeHousers think?
P.S. Great coverage over at Three Line Whip.
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Max Kaye
March 4th, 2008 10:51am Report this comment24 hour drinking is not the problem. Our British drinking culture [sic] is.
Prohibition is not the answer. I'm not sure what is. Culling, perhaps?
Miserabilis
March 4th, 2008 11:12am Report this commentToo many have had it too good and too easy for too long. Nothing that a short sharp recession wouldn't cure. Like a cold snap ridding the garden of pests.
Puncheon
March 4th, 2008 11:40am Report this commentThis episode says it all about this administration: lies, bogus statistics, hypocrisy, inconsistency in policies and probably corruption. Sweden had a similar problem of binge drinking some years ago, and they tackled it by differential taxation designed to encourage a switch to beer and wine drinking and discourage spririt drinking. Brown has done the opposite in keeping taxes on spirits, eg Scotch whisky, below the rate of inflation. I can't think why he should want to do this, but I'm sure his motives are pure and in the public interest.
CliveD
March 4th, 2008 11:53am Report this commentI think you've got this one wrong Peter. Brown wanted the review to come out against the 24 hour laws, so he could reverse the legislation and keep Dacre et al happy. This will put the PM in a tricky situation that he hadn't bargained for. Brown - like you - would have preferred a scathing report, casting himself as a moral arbiter for the nation.
Ray
March 4th, 2008 12:11pm Report this commentIncapacity benefit: the new curse of the drinking classes.
Trumpeter Lanfried
March 4th, 2008 5:02pm Report this commentI heard this story on the radio and noticed (in passing) that whenever I hear the phrase, "The Government says ..." I assume that I am about to be lied to.
Phoebe
March 4th, 2008 5:51pm Report this commentThe London Ambulance Service has also reported a 12% increase in alcohol related calls in the last two years. If the PM spent a single Friday or Saturday night shift with the police or paramedics in any British city he might change his tune. Alternatively, as that is almost certainly out of the question, perhaps he could read A Paramedic's Diary: Life and Death on the Streets, or the brilliant Diary of an On-Call Girl: True Stories from the Front Line, by WPC EE Bloggs. That would give him some insight into what it is really like outside Number 10.
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