Rogue pubs should be social outcasts
If you watched the BBC TV programme on binge drinking last week I imagine that most of you would have been as horrified as I was by the picture it presented of late-night life in major towns and cities.
It is easy to say it was a distorted picture. We all know that the vast majority of pubs open and close every day without any problems of drunkenness and violence. We all know that the horrific scenes shown on television occur only in a small number of towns and cities.
Most important, the violent behaviour took place outside pubs long after they were closed. But we can't pull down the shutters in our minds and dismiss this as a wild fabrication. Criticism can be directed at the programme makers for almost ignoring the crucial debate over whether or not the new licensing laws will tackle such problems. I believe the new legislation will have a positive impact, just as similar changes in Scotland in the late 1970s ended most of the miseries of that country's infamous "10 o'clock swill".
But it will take time for change to take effect. In the meantime, towns and cities, such as Cardiff, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Nottingham, that featured in the programme will continue to face mayhem on the streets every weekend, with images that seem to come either from Dante's Inferno or the over-heated mind of a science-fiction writer depicting some hideous vision of the near future.
I find it difficult to believe this is happening in my country. My generation did not behave in this way. When we rebelled in the 1960s we poured our energies into movements for political and social change.
Today's young generation seems intent not on change but self-destruction. I believe politicians have a lot to answer for. This is, after all, Thatcher's generation. They were told, "there's no such thing as society". In other words, live for today, make as much money as you can and don't give a damn for tomorrow or your fellow citizens
The present government is Labour in name only. It follows a Thatcherite agenda. Its infamous text message to first-time voters during the last election campaign "Don't give a 4X for licensing hours?" should have carried the sub-text "Vote Blair and get plastered round the clock".
The key question is: What can be done to tackle a problem that is disfiguring our country and presenting a dreadful impression abroad?
We need to educate the next generation to appreciate alcohol. If I were to write to the Education Secretary offering my services to speak to school students of 16 and above about the pitfalls and pleasures of alcohol, I have no doubt she would recoil in horror. "You can't possibly talk about alcohol in schools," would be the likely response. But without education we leave young people devoid of understanding. We tell them that pubs are off-limit until they are 18, then, come the fateful day, we open the pub doors to them and stand back while they drink themselves into a stupor. Young people, of course, can go into pubs with adults before they are 18 but most teenagers won't be seen dead in public with their parents.
There must be an end to happy hours and signs outside pubs and bars advertising "drink as much as you can for a fiver". These are crude invitations to get drunk. Pub owners who display such signs should be treated as social outcasts: they are part of the problem, not the solution. Many pub owners hold two fingers up at initiatives to clamp down on happy hours and offers of cheap drinks. But if they don't act, then legislation and nobody wants any further legislation affecting pubs will surely follow.
And local authorities must stop being the patsies of pub chains and bar owners. If a town centre has sufficient licensed premises, then councils must refuse applications for new licences.
A second Wetherspoon's outlet has just opened in the town where I live. One is surely enough. Unless the drive for profit regardless of social consequences is not curbed then we will all go to hell in a handcart.
