Governments New Plan to Stop 'Binge Drinking'?

[chainsaw cat]

Why are we cursed with politicians who only respond to any social problem (even ones they made up) with either

response A:'ban it!'

or

response B:'reserve it for rich people!' (AKA put the price up)?

 

[DotCommunist]

Why are we cursed with politicians who only respond to any social problem (even ones they made up) with either

response A:'ban it!'

or

response B:'reserve it for rich people!' (AKA put the price up)?

or response c: Lumber the retailer with pointlessly difficult to enforce legislation!

 

[chainsaw cat]

But never D: make the CJS actually use the perfectly good existing legislation.

 

[detective-boy]

They already can.

Not simply for alcohol related offences, not in quite the same way. (Though I agree with the general point that there are now far too many different powers and orders available and everyone (including the Courts) are confused - they would be far better streamlining them all into a single post-sentence power to issue an order with a variety of different ways into using that single power).

 

[detective-boy]

If the levels were set at a serious limit...

Sadly that is the real world safe levels according to current best accepted research ... it's not some randomly decided, arbitrary, nanny-state limit. (As is exactly the same with daily calorie requirements - set by nature, not some busybody).

 

[chainsaw cat]

Not simply for alcohol related offences, not in quite the same way. (Though I agree with the general point that there are now far too many different powers and orders available and everyone (including the Courts) are confused - they would be far better streamlining them all into a single post-sentence power to issue an order with a variety of different ways into using that single power).

Yep. Sort out the problem drinkers in whatever is the most appropriate way.

Not pester legitimate pubgoers with crappy restrictions, price rises and prissy health lectures.

 

[smokedout]

Booze asbo's, which means an individual can be banned from certain bars, offies or areas of town.

I thought they might have just increased the price of booze if they wanted people not to drink so much.

Link

thing is, most city centres already have in place voluntary schemes whereby local landlords agree to ban someone from everywhere - as well as the fact magistrates can already impose curfews etc - so this is all a load of bollocks really

 

[goosegrease]

tell people that the extra 4 inch thick layer they are carrying is very very likely due to binge drinking and the binge eating that follows those sessions? (p.s. 4 inch is just a random number, could be just 1 or 2, or 10!)

Nar, it's the stab proof vest I brought after watching too much Street Crime UK and reading the Daily Mail.

 

[CyberRose]

While I don't see anything wrong with the principle of this I'm not quite sure how it could be enforced. There's already the PubWatch scheme that pubs operate to (maybe this is just to extend it to supermarkets as well?). Drugs are illegal and everybody is banned from taking them but that's never stopped anyone from taking them.

My new law would be to make the legal price of a pint of shandy equal to 60% the price of a pint (50% of half and 10% for the lemonade cos I'm feeling generous!). I'm sick of going out and not wanting to spend a lot of money and/or get pissed only to find that a pint of shandy is sold at EXACTLY the same price as a pint! Also charging nearly the same price for a pink of coke should be made illegal (or a legal price fixed). People automatically think if I'm paying the same I might as well go for the best value (a pint) so there needs to be laws made that bring advantages to those who don't want to drink as much alcohol

 

[subversplat]

But but but beer is cheaper than Coke in the shops!

A 500ml bottle of Coke is a quid and a can of bog standard lager is only 80p or something. Pub soft drinks aren't the massive rip off that people think (well, compared with the rest of the drinks, IYSWIM)

 

[CyberRose]

But but but beer is cheaper than Coke in the shops!

A 500ml bottle of Coke is a quid and a can of bog standard lager is only 80p or something. Pub soft drinks aren't the massive rip off that people think (well, compared with the rest of the drinks, IYSWIM)

Yea but the pubs don't sell what's in bottles of coke! They buy big backs of syrup then mix it with soda water when it comes out, basically it's squash!

 

[subversplat]

You want to know what's funny. When the coke was off in the pub I used to work in and we had to get a couple of crates of bottle coke to use as mixers people felt ripped off, even though they were getting a product that cost the pub more money.

People are stupid.

 

[chainsaw cat]

You want to know what's funny. When the coke was off in the pub I used to work in and we had to get a couple of crates of bottle coke to use as mixers people felt ripped off, even though they were getting a product that cost the pub more money.

People are stupid.

Pub soft drinks must be the most profitable thing (in straightforward cost to retailer/price charged) in the world except for prostitution.

 

[newme]

Pub soft drinks must be the most profitable thing (in straightforward cost to retailer/price charged) in the world except for prostitution.

Remember reading that McDonalds soft drinks cost less than the cup that contained them.

 

[deadringer]

But but but beer is cheaper than Coke in the shops!

A 500ml bottle of Coke is a quid and a can of bog standard lager is only 80p or something. Pub soft drinks aren't the massive rip off that people think (well, compared with the rest of the drinks, IYSWIM)

plus non drinkers wont guzzle 10 pints of coke on a nite out

 

[deadringer]

I just want decent pubs that open til about 2 and free from tossers... I shouldn't have to go to places packed with wankers in the city centre. Those places have always been there though and the media are so wrong in attributing that to New Labour and stuff

exactly this. papers bang on about 24hour drinking, all thats really changed is that some pubs are now open til 12/1am. there has always been nightclubs open til the early hours

 

[detective-boy]

thing is, most city centres already have in place voluntary schemes whereby local landlords agree to ban someone from everywhere - as well as the fact magistrates can already impose curfews etc - so this is all a load of bollocks really

Neither of those things is the same - not least because breach of a voluntary ban is not an offence and subject to penalty.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Agreed with Cyber, I would make it compulsory for soft drinks to be about half the price of beer.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Mind you, then no doubt we'll get hysterical news stories about how tooth decay has increased 30% since the government made it compulsory...

 

[subversplat]

I heard that some enterprising young sods were planning an attack on Pubwatch in the courts. Something to do with it illegal sharing of data - basically that all the landlords getting together as a cartel and passing around potentially slanderous comments about members of the public without their consent is not legal. Interesting stuff.

 

[smokedout]

Neither of those things is the same - not least because breach of a voluntary ban is not an offence and subject to penalty.

but they worked, especially the pub watch schemes - although i understand that you'd object to communities managing these problems themselves without having to resort to the machinery of the state, the courts and the police

 

[detective-boy]

Interesting stuff.

The challenge will never get off the ground (at least in relation to a proper Pubwatch scheme).

 

[detective-boy]

but they worked, especially the pub watch schemes - although i understand that you'd object to communities managing these problems themselves without having to resort to the machinery of the state, the courts and the police

I don't object to them at all. They're just not the same thing. Breaches don't have the same status. They are not a solution in all cases. This is not replacing them anyway, it's just providing another option.

And why the need to have a fucking pop?

 

[Fuchs66]

Why do we want some 'euro style cafe culture'?

Thing is what is a 'euro style cafe culture'?

I've lived in Germany and now the Netherlands for the past 22 years and I've always been able to find decent pubs, the difference to the UK being the chances of getting a kicking for no apparent reason are virtually nil, I can enjoy decent beer at a decent price and I dont have to pick my way through comatosed, puke covered tossers on the way out

 

[Giles]

Thing is what is a 'euro style cafe culture'?

I've lived in Germany and now the Netherlands for the past 22 years and I've always been able to find decent pubs, the difference to the UK being the chances of getting a kicking for no apparent reason are virtually nil, I can enjoy decent beer at a decent price and I dont have to pick my way through comatosed, puke covered tossers on the way out

I've lived in London for fifteen years or more, and quite happily frequent several local pubs (Kilburn and West Hampstead) and haven't ever received a kicking or even a punch in all that time.

Or stepped over comatose(d) puke covered tossers anywhere either.....

Seen a fair few people stumble and fall over in or on their way out of the pub, though!

Giles..

 

[smokedout]

I've lived in London for fifteen years or more, and quite happily frequent several local pubs (Kilburn and West Hampstead) and haven't ever received a kicking or even a punch in all that time.

i cant remember the last time i saw a decent fight in a pub, whereas when i first started drinking it was a nightly occurance

i dont think this is a new problem or even a bigger problem than it used to be, but i do think that people are more inlcined to involve the police

if youd walked into bradford nick on a saturday night 20 years ago complaining youd been punched in the face theyd have laughed you out of there

 

[Dr Jon]

Thing is what is a 'euro style cafe culture'?

I've lived in Germany and now the Netherlands for the past 22 years and I've always been able to find decent pubs, the difference to the UK being the chances of getting a kicking for no apparent reason are virtually nil, I can enjoy decent beer at a decent price and I dont have to pick my way through comatosed, puke covered tossers on the way out

Panorama "The Truth About Happy Hour" about a month back, showed reports from Oldham: streets swarming with drunken, mooning, puking, fighting idiots. The policing bill must be incredible.

Such a contrast to what I saw in Berlin, where people drink beer from glass bottles as they make their way around town on a night out! Lots of drinking is done, but civilised and orderly. The trains run all night too..

 

[Cloud]

I used to drink in a pub where weed out the back was kinda tolerated, never any fights in there. They had a bit of a crack down, some miserable old sod wasn't happy with the lack of brawling obviously. Now nobody goes in and it's going to become a gastro place. Twat really because it was a place you could go in your work clothes, I dont think the cafe culture would like a few builders popping in after work. I dunno one boozer that is a proper local social hub, not one.