BBC unfair to target Best's doctor

It was inevitable, given the media frenzy over '24-hour drinking', that George Best's doctor, Professor Roger Williams, should be asked for his views on the new licensing laws. Inevitable but despicable, and especially shocking when the BBC's highbrow Newsnight programme descends to the level of the sensationalist, yellow press.

The questions were asked on the day of Best's death. It was clear from his grief-stricken face that Professor Williams was more than just Best's doctor. He had become a close friend and was deeply saddened by Best's passing.

I share the professor's grief. I am of the same generation as George Best. Unlike Pele - a grainy, black-and-white figure in ancient newsreels - I saw and marvelled at Best in colour and on the field. There is no need for me to add to the volumes of praise heaped on his memory in the past week. Suffice it to say that he was a sporting genius and the first football celebrity.

But he shone, bewitched and dazzled on the football field for only a few years. Then he rapidly descended into alcoholism. It is a dreadful illness and ultimately a killer. All of us who read this newspaper and work in the brewing industry or the pub trade are closely acquainted with alcohol - with its good side as well as its bad.

I write and talk about beer. I probably drink more of it than most people, almost certainly more than is good for me. But I know when to stop. I can have dry days. I have no idea of what it is like to wake up and reach for a bottle and go on drinking until overcome by alcohol and falling into a drunken stupor. And then starting all over again, day after day.

People who crave alcohol will get it, any time of the day or night. That is where I part company with Professor Williams and feel outraged that Best's tragic death should be vulgarly linked to the new Licensing Act.

Professor Williams told Newsnight that from his experience of treating liver disease, it is countries with liberal licensing laws that suffer the greatest problems. I beg to differ.

A Scottish friend rang me last week after he had heard me in a rather bad tempered discussion about the Licensing Act and binge drinking on Radio 5 Live and asked the simple question: 'Why does no-one ever mention Scotland?'

The simple answer is: Because it doesn't fit the media's image of mayhem resulting from liberalised licensing laws.

Scotland, until the late 1970s, was infamous for the '10 o'clock swill'. Every pub, bar and hotel stopped serving alcohol dead at 10, with no drinking-up time. The result - which I witnessed at first hand - was horrific.

People guzzled beer and whisky at speed as the witching hour drew near, then erupted on to the streets to fight, vomit and urinate.

It would be absurd to suggest that Scotland no longer has any problems with drink, but since the law changed it has been a more pleasant country to drink in.

I recall, shortly after the law changed in Scotland, dropping into a bar in central Edinburgh at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. A middle-aged couple came in with their shopping bags and ordered a pot of tea. In a pub. In Scotland. The world had changed.

Australia had an even worse plight. They had the '6 o'clock swill'. People would leave work, get hammered, then either fight in the streets or at home. Now that country also enjoys liberal hours and the problems have eased.

I do not accept another argument put forward by the opponents of the Licensing Act that binge drinking will be tackled by higher taxation.

I was told in graphic detail during a trip to Sweden, where alcohol is taxed to the rafters, that people save up for a month then descend on Stockholm and other cities and spend the weekend getting pickled. They do more damage to their livers than those of us who enjoy our drinks at a relatively affordable price and at times of our choosing.

Two memories of George Best remain with me: the maestro on the football field, and the emaciated old man on his deathbed.

He killed himself. He had the money and determination to fuel his illness with booze. It had nothing to do with pub opening hours and it is an insult to both the sensible majority and his memory to suggest otherwise.