Should pubs do more to stop binge drinking

[gmloki]

Was watching an interesting article on tonight's national news. The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire police thinks that pubs should do more to foot the cost of some of the social problems associated with binge drinking. He also went onto say

"Late night establishments are exploiting peoples' desire to drink to the state of oblivion... they ought to be paying for the consequences of that."

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that more should be done to stem the tide of alcohol abuse, I would play devils advocate and saying that more police and after drinking clean up facilities doesn't address the problem.

So should the pubs do more in what is already a very competitive business environment ? The easy one is to say that Joe Public should do more to cut down alcohol abuse but we all know that won't happen. Moreover whilst the indulgences of society fill the Government coffers, I doubt many senior ministers would do too much to rock the boat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7113188.stm

what's your thoughts

 

[Chilly]

I think that anything that asks sellers to reduce their operating profits is going to be very difficult to bring in without forcing them in some way (legislation, licence terms/conditions changed).

 

[DaGaffer]

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree that more should be done to stem the tide of alcohol abuse, ....

Why?

 

[Tom]

The people doing the abusing should pay. The pubs aren't to blame here.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? "Its not my fault mate, the pubs made me do it".

 

[JBP|]

Why are people always blaming pubs?

Do not the supermarkets selling cut price booze hold some responsibility for " binge drinking"?

 

[gmloki]

Why?

Because of the associated problems that go with it which are vast and varying. The news report showed people falling asleep stood up next to cash machines, taking their draws off and going to sleep in doorways. They may not be a danger to other people per se but they certainly are putting themeselves at risk of being robbed or something like that

 

[DaGaffer]

Because of the associated problems that go with it which are vast and varying. The news report showed people falling asleep stood up next to cash machines, taking their draws off and going to sleep in doorways. They may not be a danger to other people per se but they certainly are putting themeselves at risk of being robbed or something like that

And that's their problem. I've done plenty of stupid shit when drunk in my time, and when I've woken up in a ditch I haven't blamed anyone else or thought "something should be done", other than "I should buy more Nurofen". And new pants.

 

[Deebs]

Binge drinking is down to the person doing the drinking and sod all else. As DaGaffer commented on his ditch scenario (which I can relate to), I sometimes speed. Is it my fault? Audi for making a car that can go faster than any speed limit in Britain? The people in front who moved out of the way?

No, it was my fault and I take responsibility for my action. Binge drinking can only be stemmed by getting tougher on the people that do it and cause aggravation. Why should I be punished for some young person's desire to get pissed all the time?

 

[Jimmy]

sod that as deebs and dagaffer sed there own fault iv drank my fair share and got pissed like theres no tomorrow and u learn from it .

i got through a pub sized bottle of lambs navy rum after a shift at a pub and belive me i was ill for days after thats my own fault not the pubs ppl should start to take the blame for the shit they do and stop blaming the state.

 

[Kryten]

Again I can only mirror the views of Deebs, DaGaffer etc - we're our own people and need to take responsibility for our own actions. I ended up in the side of someone elses car at 60mph once - at the time (being much younger) I was quick to blame lack of road signs, lack of light etc (no drink involved btw) but after taking the road awareness course, a little part of my brain opened and said "well, noone to blame but yourself, you've taken the resposibility, grow up"
Shit happens, everyone makes mistakes - noone but yourself has the ability to alter your own willpower, and no amount of cash machines by pubs, happy hours or new cocktails are able to change your own mind.

 

[Rubric]

sod that as deebs and dagaffer sed there own fault iv drank my fair share and got pissed like theres no tomorrow and u learn from it .

i got through a pub sized bottle of lambs navy rum after a shift at a pub and belive me i was ill for days after thats my own fault not the pubs ppl should start to take the blame for the shit they do and stop blaming the state.

Are you drunk?

 

[Jimmy]

Are you drunk?

nope too early to be drunk

 

[Trem]

This is a silly thread.

Lets ask drug dealers if they should do more to stop over dosing, lets ask car dealers if they should do more to help climate change, lets ask Nike if they should do more to stop child workers......ect.

Silly thread.

 

[Guest]

fucking nancy thread...........


toady liberals.......


last time i looked it wasn't illegal to get drunk, the whole country is an alky, i blame the government

 

[rynnor]

Bring in Prohibition! It worked in the US!

But more seriously - its already illegal to serve alcohol to someone who is drunk but its never enforced - the police could crackdown on this if they chose.

This might help but it would be better to consider why our society binge drinks and maybe look at fixing that - while the desire exists no controls will stop it.

 

[Sharma]

Bring in Prohibition! It worked in the US!

TBH if they did that I think most people would take it as the next step towards turning the UK into a muslim country. :|

As towards stopping binge drinking, as has been said the only people responsible are the people themselves I think, if you're thick enough to drink yourself into oblivion, then you should be responsible enough to take the consequences and not blame it on the state going "It's their fault".

In this day and age, everything is everyone elses fault, you can sue anyone or anything for everything these days.

Sadly people don't seem to wake up thinking "I'll never do that again", the thought pattern now seems to be "Oh I got a week long hangover and i'm starting to go yellow, must be a sign of a decent night!".

 

[Deebs]

"Oh I got a week long hangover and i'm starting to go yellow, must be a sign of a decent night!".

Surely waking up drenched in piss is a sign of having a good night....

 

[Fana]

Surely those of you that say its the person doing the drinking that has the problem realize that alcoholism cost society massive ammounts of resources each year in social service interventions, medical treatments, police interventions, not to mention the poor kids of alcoholics that generally get a pretty shitty upbringing and often turn into pretty shitty individuals themselves.

 

[Trem]

Surely those of you that say its the person doing the drinking that has the problem realize that alcoholism cost society massive ammounts of resources each year in social service interventions, medical treatments, police interventions, not to mention the poor kids of alcoholics that generally get a pretty shitty upbringing and often turn into pretty shitty individuals themselves.

My dad was an alcoholic and I don't consider myself a shitty individual and neither do many people who know me. Your comment was sillier than this thread and also pretty offensive to me.

 

[Guest]

i agree with Trem.......(again)

in this country we do have a limited amount of freedom (depends on who you talk to), so we are allowed to do mostly wtf we like as long as its in the limits of the law.

you can't stop a country drinking, look at ireland fs, its pretty good/bad in the North as well, its a thing you get brought up doing, a social thing.

I have had many a hard day at the office and got hammered to de stress, its just what some people do to chill out, the poncy yanks go see councellors to sort thier issies out, us brits get slaughtered.

(btw i am visiting a councellor every week for my anger management issues, but that in no way makes me a ponce)

 

[Calaen]

I believe Fana was talking generally, I suspect that in most cases, having an alcoholic in the family is not really any different to having a class A drug addict in the family.

I lived with my Uncle who was a heroin addict, not having a father in my life he was one of the only male role models in my life. He died at the age of 40 on a morphine OD. I consider myself to be alright. However I have friends that have grown up with one of their parents struggling with drinking and it has completely messed them up.

At the end of the day its down to the individual to step up and make the decision to steer clear of these problems. People are to quick to point the finger at someone else and blame them for all their troubles, I prefer to do what I want, for my own reasons, knowing that if it goes tits up I only have myself to blame.

 

[DaGaffer]

Surely those of you that say its the person doing the drinking that has the problem realize that alcoholism cost society massive ammounts of resources each year in social service interventions, medical treatments, police interventions, not to mention the poor kids of alcoholics that generally get a pretty shitty upbringing and often turn into pretty shitty individuals themselves.

Ah, the "Think of The Children" argument. I wondered when that would come out. Irrespective of what Britain's drinking culture is like, you will always get basket cases who turn into alcoholics, child-beaters or whatever. Sure, there is a "cost to society" for alcoholism, but just like with smoking, its almost certainly more than offset by the tax revenue raised on VAT and duty.

Fact is, most people in this country go through a "binge-drinking" phase (God I hate that phrase), and then they grow out of it. Like everything worth doing in life, there will be some casualties along the way. That's the price of freedom.

 

[Calaen]

Fact is, most people in this country go through a "binge-drinking" phase (God I hate that phrase), and then they grow out of it. Like everything worth doing in life, there will be some casualties along the way. That's the price of freedom.

Agree 100%

 

[GReaper]

But more seriously - its already illegal to serve alcohol to someone who is drunk but its never enforced - the police could crackdown on this if they chose.

This is one of my first thoughts whenever the subject of binge drinking comes up, the Licensing Act 2003 covers it.

Licensed premises already face fines and the risk of losing their license if they sell alcohol to anyone under 18, why not enforce other parts of the act as well?

 

[Tom]

fucking nancy thread...........


toady liberals.......


last time i looked it wasn't illegal to get drunk, the whole country is an alky, i blame the government

This is not a brooky post, there are no spelling mistakes. Brooky's account may have been haxx0red!11.

 

[old.Tohtori]

First, no smoking in bars.

And soon, no drinking and no talking! - Eddie Izzard.

Prophet that man.

Sounds absolutely ridicilous.

If i want to drink my assets off, knock my head on the asphalt and f*ck a waitress in the bathroom i should be able to!

Was already wrong enough they took the sandwhich option away from my local since the bathroom was half a meter too close to the place they made 'em in.

 

[WPKenny]

This is just another thing in my long list of reasons to leave the UK.

People in this nanny country seem unwilling to leave anything up to Darwinism. We'll all be wearing bubble wrap before we leave the house soon, by law. But it'll have to be special, government approved bubble wrap costing 3 times the price of the normal stuff.

What are people going to learn if they're not allowed to make mistakes. The best lessons I've ever learnt are by fucking things up. I know I'll never be repeating the same mistake again in a hurry.

To paraphrase a Slashdot comment I read today... Let's not have a sports day at school, some kids might get upset! Why not just scrap the exams in case the thick kids get upset. Hell, why not just give people jobs on a names-out-of-a-hat basis, in case the inept miss out.

To paraphrase a speech from Absolutely Fabulous.... Instead of having all these safety procedures in place, why not just take all the safety labels off things and let nature run it's course?

Why the fuck should normal, hard working, taxed to the hilt people be fucked up the arse (even more) just because weak willed binge drinkers can't decide when enough is enough?

Anything remotely enjoyable in this country is turning into a taxable, rape Joe Bloggs of his hard earned cash and laugh all the way to the bank exercise.

Cost of living in the country is already sky high without some twat deciding that the best way to deal with a binge drinker with no self control is to make him spend more. Yes, make him spend more. People don't have the sense to cut back on these things, they just find they're deeper in debt at the end of it all.
What happened when the price of cigs went up? Did smoking figures drop dramatically? Bollocks. People smoked the same and bitched more.
Why would drinking, a more socially acceptible vice, be any different?

Want to move house? That'll be another few thousand for a pointless information pack on top of the tax you're already paying us please! What? You want seller/buyer protection like in other countries *cough* Scotland *cough*. Don't be silly! We make money off the VAT you spend on wasted solicitors fees! FOOL!

Meh, rant over. I'm sure there's a point in there somewhere....

 

[Sharma]

Basically this countries ran by twatbags.

We knew that already, all 3 major parties are all twatbags hellbent on screwing us for more money.

 

[mank!]

people ought to follow my example and not drink.

i'm awesome and this is down to my sobriety.

 

[throdgrain]

Bring in more laws! We need more laws!



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