THE GUV'NOR

John Baldwin

One of the

main problems affecting our

society is the lack of alcohol education, says the licensee of the Big 6, in Halifax,

Yorkshire

Now that the festive season is over and landlords start hoping that trade and savings will see them through to what we hope is a good summer, I can catch up on my reading. Out come the trade papers cast aside through December and the gloom descends.

Of all the articles, Tim Martin's My Shout stood out. I have long told anybody who will listen that the main reason for our current drinking culture is the lack of education of the young along with an effort to keep them away from drink till they're 18. I think this is a recipe for social disaster.

I, like Mr Martin, began my drinking in local and town-centre pubs under the legal age nearly 30 years ago when the drinks section of a supermarket was almost

non-existent.

Like Tim Martin, I learnt to drink in a controlled environment where the price of antisocial behaviour was too daunting to contemplate. Not only did your peers have the ability to discipline you, if you were really out of order, but if your dad found out... well, enough said.

Time has moved on and things have changed in so many ways. Yes, there seems to be an inordinate amount of time and resources used to keep those under 18 away from alcohol, along with no time or resources given to education. Add the fact that casual employment of children from 14 onwards gives them far more money to spend at that age than

I ever had and the recipe

gets thicker.

When Mr Martin and myself were getting our education in drinking and social awareness, the tools used were bitter and lager, low-alcohol drinks that were a taste education in themselves. Australian lager had only just reached our shores and a strong drink was Colt 45. Nowadays there is a plethora of strong drinks that taste like pop.

What education can there be in a drink that looks and tastes like a soft drink with all the effects of a strong bitter or lager?

Supermarkets are not the whole problem, though they do contribute. The problem is demonising alcohol instead of educating people.