Joy of passing into adulthood - Roger Protz
My son Adam celebrated his 18th birthday last week and, casting off the shackles of parenthood, went to the pub for the first time on his own.
Well, not quite on his own - he went with a school friend who had similarly crossed over into manhood. The difference was that Adam didn't need me to go with him to buy him a beer.
How life has changed! When I grew up in the East End of London in the 1950s - and you will deduce from this that Adam is the result of a late marriage - I was not allowed into licensed premises until I was 21. I had to do two years military service and, had the need arisen, fought for Queen and country. But I wasn't permitted the pleasures of a pint of Charrington's.
There was a Sunday ritual in my family: my father and my uncle would walk from East Ham to Barking, past the beauty spots of Beckton power station and the outfall sewer, and enjoy a couple of pints in a pub. I went with them but had to wait outside.
A glass of ginger beer would be brought to the door for me but, come rain or come shine, I wasn't allowed to cross the portals of the pub.
Adam and his younger brother Matthew have been going to pubs with me for several years and have observed the letter of the law. Adam has enjoyed a beer when eating, while Matthew, now 15, sticks to whatever fizzy concoction appeals to him. Meanwhile, back at home, Adam has been free to join me in drinking a beer with his evening meal when the fancy takes him. My wife, Diana, has played an important role in introducing Adam to the pleasures of alcohol. She has lived and worked in both France and Italy and has seen how families in those countries introduce children to alcohol at an early age by giving them heavily-watered wine at the dining table.
Over the years the ratio of water to wine is carefully changed until, by the time children have become young adults, they have grown to appreciate the joys of wine in an unwatered state.
We do things differently here. Alcohol is forbidden until the age of 18 is reached and then off to the pub young people go and get thoroughly plastered. But not, I am pleased to say, in Adam's case last week. I was tucked up in bed long before he returned home but the following morning he was up at a reasonable hour and seemed bright and alert.
It might have been fruitful if Patricia Hewitt had gone with Adam and his friend, Paul, on their first parentless visit to the pub. She could have observed that not all young people are binge drinkers and wreck town centres following a night on the booze. In common with too many modern politicians, she allows the more lurid tabloid newspapers to set the Government's agenda.
Binge drinking is a problem but it is important to keep the problem within proportion.
Binge drinking may damage town-centre property. It without doubt damages the drinkers, young women in particular, who may experience problems with pregnancy later in life.
But it is a problem confined to only a handful of areas. The notion that it can be tackled by increasing the duty on beer is risible. For a start, such a policy would have an impact on the overwhelming majority of drinkers who handle alcohol sensibly. It would be a regressive and unfair tax.
And people that can afford to indulge in binge drinking won't bat an eyelid if the price of their alcopop increases by a pound. They have the wherewithal to afford the prices.
We need a programme of education to teach young people about the pleasures and pitfalls of alcohol. We don't need restrictions on opening hours or a tax rise that only penalises the innocent.
In the meantime, Adam is now starting a weekend job and will soon be in a position to take me out for a drink. On this historic occasion, I promise you, no alcopops will pass our lips.
