Alcohol - there's a lot to learn
At long last, common sense is breaking out over the issue of binge and underage drinking. The media, having castigated pubs and the mythical "24-hours opening", has suddenly got the message that it's the supermarkets that are fuelling the problem.
And the Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik has weighed in to the debate, using the dread word "education". Writing in The Independent on Sunday, Mr Opik asked: "Why is it that the other 300 million people in Europe manage perfectly well with liberal drinking hours, while in Britain we seem to associate late-night bars with all-night binges?
"It's worth remembering that the first drink laws were introduced to stop inebriated ammunitions workers blowing themselves up in World War One. I fear that any new licensing arrangements will be less effective without a change of attitude - for that we probably need more unpatronising education in schools."
Well said. I have argued many times in these pages that the British are singularly bad at preparing children for the pleasures and the pitfalls of alcohol. The French and the Italians give their offspring heavily-watered wine from an early age so that by the time they are able to buy drinks for themselves they have a true appreciation of the juice of the vine.
It's true that we are more relaxed these days about letting children and young people into pubs, but when did you last hear a parent offering a teenager a beer shandy rather than a soft drink full of wind and sugar?
Mr Opik is right to stress that schools as well as homes are key places where the positive and negative aspects of alcohol should be taught. It's now an urgent priority. However much we may plead that alcohol problems are over-blown by the media and are confined to a small minority, the image of drunken and riotous behaviour is damaging to both brewers and licensees.
The problem is not a new one. In the 18th century the horrors of gut-rot gin were graphically illustrated by Hogarth in his famous drawings of Gin Lane. One London gin shop famously advertised its wares with the slogan: "Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for twopence". By dead, the grog shop meant not plastered but a case for the bone yard.
Lembit Opik is right to ask why the British handle booze so badly. On a recent visit to Prague, I had the misfortune to share a plane with a large party of young people who, as they made clear from their loud conversation, were going to the Czech capital to get well and truly puddled.
Their behaviour was appalling. They climbed over seats, stood in the gangway, prevented other passengers from getting to the toilets, and were unspeakably rude to the cabin staff. Yet, from their clothes and accents, these were clearly well-educated, middle-class
young people.
It is deeply offensive to the working class for the media to suggest that it is only their children who behave badly and misuse alcohol.
How do we tackle the problem? Not by rolling back the new licensing law or by raising the legal drinking age to 21, as the Chief Constable of Cheshire has suggested.
Tell a young man he can join the armed forces at 18 but will have to wait three years to enjoy a beer and you will get a ribald response.
No, the answer lies in schools. All the pressure groups in and around the brewing and pub industries - the British Beer & Pub Association, Independent Family Brewers of Britain, Society of Independent Brewers and the Campaign for Real Ale to name just a few - should unite to call on the Government to introduce a programme of alcohol education in schools. The Beer Academy and the British Guild of Beer Writers have the expertise and the people willing and able to give lively and entertaining presentations on how to handle and, above all, enjoy and appreciate alcohol.
Unless we act soon, I fear the Government could be pushed into imposing a crackdown in the form of higher taxes on drink and restricting pub opening hours, which will fail
to tackle the problem of alcohol abuse but
will do immeasurable damage to brewing
and retailing.
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