With my eldest having recently turned 18, I'm developing an interesting new perspective on the trade's approach to underage sales.
It seems to me as though pub staff are taking their legal responsibiities pretty seriously - unlike some of the off-trade.
I've always told my teenage children that trying to get served while underage puts both them and the licensee or bar-person at risk. But I'm not naive enough to think that they always pay attention.
We're just back from a family holiday in the West Country where Matt, my son, excused himself from bucket-and-spade duty to hook up with three friends who were camping nearby. With the other three still only 17, the presence of Matt, and more importantly his ID, were essential elements in their holiday plans.
On the first evening, and with his three partners-in-crime lurking in a dark corner of a busy pub garden, Matt confidently ordered four pints. Having been asked to produce his ID, he was duly scuppered when the barman added "I'll be out to check your mates' IDs in a moment."
The story was repeated in several other pubs in the area, with staff making routine sweeps of outside areas to ensure that there was no underage drinking taking place.
In another pub in the town, I saw four youngsters who looked to be to be in their early 20s ID-ed, with one refused service when he couldn't prove his age. In yet another pub, a father who sent his teenage daughter to collect a round of drinks was told in no uncertain terms that he'd have to come to the bar himself.
However, when i visited the campsite where the boys were staying, it was a different story. Empty beer and cider cans, as well as the occasional spirits bottle, were in evidence in their tent as well as several others occupied by teenagers. It was pretty obvious that the local off-llcences were not taking the same tough approach as the pubs.
So it isn't hard to see where the test purchasers need to be be focusing their attention, is it?