What the Sunday papers said

The number of teenagers receiving medical treatment after drinking binges has risen nearly 15 per cent in the year the new 24-hour licensing laws were introduced. The Mail On Sunday reports that the "shock increase, recorded just months after the law changed, means hundreds more under-18s have suffered liver disease, blood poisoning and mental disorder as a result of alcohol". The news "delivers a crashing blow to Labour's flagship legislation, which Ministers promised would bring about a revolution in the UK's drinking culture". - Mail On Sunday​

The Sunday Mirror reminds readers this Wednesday (March 14) is No Smoking Day and if anyone hooked on ciggies needed an incentive to kick the habit - apart from the health implications and the impending ban - they only need look at the cost of life insurance premiums. These can be cut in half if you cut out the fags, the paper says. "Smokers who own up to their habit pay a lot more because they are much more likely to die early. Those who don't own up to smoking run a huge risk of a claim being refused if the deception is discovered after death." - Sunday Mirror​

Neil Morrissey, star of TV's Men Behaving Badly, has seen his dream of creating a chain of exclusive pubs and hotels "descend into farce and fisticuffs like a script from his famous telly show", says the Sunday Express. A pub and hotel bought by Morrissey in the sleepy Welsh town of Laugharne in Carmarthenshire are closed, with the pub up for sale. Morrissey's business partner ended up in hospital after a scrap with a chef who used to work with the pair, and Felinfoel Brewery has taken the star to court for not paying a £1,000 beer bill for one of his hotels. A spokeswoman for Morrissey said the business "as not in financial difficulties but in a period of development". - Sunday Express​

One of the world's leading experts on gambling will this week denounce the decision to award the first super casino licence to Manchester, reports the Daily Telegraph. Professor Peter Collins, who helped draw up the government's gambling legislation in 2003, will tell peers that the conclusions reached by the Casino Advisory Panel were "arbitrary, often highly disputable and based on reasoning that was frequently inconsistent, superficial and ill-informed". Opposition to Manchester is growing, with a number of MPs clamouring for a change of destination for the super casino. - Daily Telegraph ​

And finally…

Motor(ing) mouth and Sunday Times columnist Jeremy Clarkson hates darts-playing pub goers, but "really won't be happy until the pub itself has gone". Clarkson reckons that darts-playing punters "paint a picture of traditional England with low ceilings, horse brasses, a fire and people from the village gathered around to swap stories over a pint of handmade beer. The reality is that you have to stand up, the beer's got twigs in it, the landlord is a psychopath, you can't hear what anybody is saying, the fire's too hot…and if you inadvertently spill someone's drink you'll be invited into the car park to do pugilism. We shook off the culture of strikes, chilly winters and Michael Foot and now we must shake off the spectre of the pub and all that it stands for: darts, bar billiards, bores and beer with the consistency of engine oil. Mine's a Bacardi Breezer." - Sunday Times​