Elixir of youth

Could allowing youngsters into pubs reduce social disorder while providing a new source of income? Andrew Jefford tunes in to the unheard voices of today's disaffected under-16s

A s one of the most famous lines in music history goes, "All I'm asking is for a little respect". It's been running through the national psyche a lot recently, too, as the importance of the "respect agenda" grows throughout Britain. Every town and city, it would seem, has a problem with roving bands of disaffected youngsters breaking bottles in children's playgrounds, trashing fences on sink estates, terrifying pensioners who've gone out to buy a tin of cat food, and clutching ASBOs as a badge of pride.

Alcohol is often what is politely referred to as a "contributing factor". We hear a lot about zero tolerance, though the Godfather's neat solution - a gift of concrete boots, ready-fitted, and a chance to sleep with the fishes - seems unlikely to be adopted as public policy any time soon.

But here's a solution that no one has yet

suggested: pubs for adolescents. Once you've finished laughing, hear me out.

If the said miscreants are interviewed, the usual response is that they have nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. By and large, this is true. Their homes are often horrible places where meals are never served, invective pollutes the air and the television is always on.

These are the sort of adolescents who are unlikely to work their way up the scouting hierarchy, join the sea cadets or play the oboe in the local youth orchestra. Our public spaces have little to offer them apart from graffiti opportunities - and, unaccompanied, they are rigorously excluded from pubs.

It's easy for them to feel like pariahs and outcasts - and that feeling, combined with the braggadocio and idiocy caused by surging testosterone, precocious sexuality, fashion victimhood, inadequate parenting and a catastrophic role-model repertoire - leads to the kind of trouble with which we have become all too familiar.

Catering for underage youngsters

So why shouldn't pubs cater for underage youngsters? They have money to spend, just like everyone else, and being made to feel welcome in an "adult" space such as a pub would do wonders for their self-esteem in most cases.

I'm not arguing for a peremptory lowering of the drinking age, so the deal would be soft drinks only - but plenty of profit can be made on these as well. Ironically, allowing youngsters into pubs to consume soft drinks would probably be a better way of ensuring that the early teens stayed clear of alcohol than the present system. A familiar sight on summer evenings in urban parks, 14-year-olds often find nothing simpler than finding a compliant adult or 18-year-old to buy their alcohol, or a corner-shop offie prepared to run the risk of a sting in return for ready sales.

It's easy to imagine that unaccompanied early teens in pubs would be nothing but trouble - but is this true? Children in pubs were once regarded as nothing but trouble - yet look at the way "child-friendly" or "family" pubs have blossomed over the last decade or two, and consider the profits generated for those prepared to tackle the challenge with a little thought and imagination.

The key to success in this area, it seems to me, would be to ensure that pubs frequented by youngsters maintain a healthy social mix. They may well need to have a strong sports or music theme, and have plenty of pub games. They would also need gifted licensees (or at least a higher-than-usual staff ratio) to monitor the pub environment to make sure that no trouble developed and no predatory adult behaviour occurred.

But why should this be any more difficult in a pub than it is in the world outside? In truth, it would be much easier, and I see no reason why a sensible approach of this kind shouldn't have the full backing of the local police.

Damage limitation

The problem, of course, is the law itself. Since November 2005, unaccompanied children under 16 have been prohibited from using any part of the premises "exclusively or primarily used for the supply of alcohol for consumption on the premises". A 15-year-old, in other words, cannot walk into a public bar

and order a Coke. My learned friend Mr [Peter] Coulson, ever reasonable, describes this rule as "quite silly". I agree: it's a rule that creates problems rather than solves them.

Like it or not, consuming alcohol and acquiring access to the "forbidden" pub world, is perhaps the key rite of passage for Britain's adolescents. If the so-called respect agenda is to stand a chance, we need to find a saner approach to manage transitions to adulthood in Britain.

A gradual gateway to this world, carefully managed, would bring enormous benefits - the much-touted French, Italian and Spanish model suggests that easily the best way to introduce children to alcohol is slowly, gradually and unfussily, ideally with food and in the company of drinking, but not drunk, adults. The existing British system makes this harder, rather than easier, to achieve.

Nor do I see why our drinking laws shouldn't be modified to allow youngsters a limited number of weak alcoholic drinks from, say, the age of 16 (at which point they can consent to sex and get married with parental approval). Since children as young as five years of age are, at present, allowed to drink alcohol under parental supervision, there is a good case for arguing that licensees are unfairly penalised by having to wait until adolescents reach the age of 18 before selling them any alcohol - by which time a majority will have had extensive experience of it anyway.

The mindset that dictates that pubs exist for over-18s only has already been shown to be antiquated by the success of family pubs.

Let's finish the job, lobby our MPs, and find ways to cater for the entire British population, especially those 14 and 15-year-olds we serve so poorly at the moment. It could bring great social benefits - as well as being the biggest profit opportunity still entirely unexploited by Britain's licensees and pubcos.