ANOTHER NAIL IN THE PUB’S COFFIN...

Is this Government trying to kill off the local pub trade once and for all; or is it a personal crusade to financially cripple the average man in the street?

Determined to be seen as a champion to influential lobbying health campaigners, our Prime Minister has come up with yet another initiative to prevent ‘binge drinking’ by introducing a minimum price of 45p on a unit of alcohol.

If this proposal goes ahead, it would hit everyone who drinks responsibly as well as those who regularly drink themselves into a state of oblivion! For instance, a bottle of supermarket home brand spirit would shoot up from £11.00 to £12.60. and everyday table wine rising from £3.99. to around £4.50.

If the Government really want to introduce a radical initiative to help prevent the sale of cheap alcohol to young ‘binge drinkers’ then they should go the whole hog and ban the sale of alcohol from all supermarkets and return the retailing of all alcohol, exclusively back to the pub; either over the bar or by reintroducing ‘off-sales’ counters. The local pub used to be the meeting place for people to socialise, have a reasonable drink and relax. But our pubs have been forced to close on a large scale over recent years - due to the escalating prices demanded for staple lines by the breweries, excessive Government taxes, smoking bans and the ‘blind eye’ the Government has turned to the big supermarkets; who are undermining local pubs by selling cheap alcohol as ‘lost leaders’ etc. The only marketing option the pubs have left to compete in this situation, is to either become gastro or themed pubs or run ‘price & drink’ promotions, in a quest to survive!

Surely it must be far better to sell alcohol in places that can monitor excessive drinking.

But there are many more reasons that Britain seem to have become the binge drinking centre of Europe and therefore much more thought must be given to combat this growing problem. The Government should know by now that there is no one ‘silver bullet’ that will fix it!

                                                                         In other countries being drunk in public is not socially acceptable and not something to be proud of or to boast about later. Here, it is. I think it is less to do with the price of booze or disposable income, and more to do with forms of rebellion and wanting to be "cool". We glorify sports people and celebrities for partying, and we copy them. In other countries, this kind of behaviour is seen as pitiable or shameful.

Although I, like most of my peers, did engage in under age drinking; when I was 18, I was legally introduced to drinking by my father; in many ways it was a rite of passage that many youngsters growing up in the late 60’s early 70’s experienced. Therefore, when I went drinking in pubs in my area and because families lived closer together, pubs were frequented by the older generation and there was always someone in the pub who knew my family. So if I was ever out-of-order, this info’ would trickle back to my parents. Now we have big city centre pubs, trendy bars and student only drinking holes with only young people in them, and with families spread around the country, if a youngster drinks too much, and started fighting or was rushed to A&E, their parents would never know and start disciplining them.

Youngsters who learn to drink in the company of adults are more likely to learn how to behave than those who guzzle supermarket booze on street corners.

Unfortunately, politicians seem determined to destroy the traditional pub, so they should shoulder much of the blame!

The other major change has been the opening times. The introduction of 24-hour opening has been a major factor in the increase of ‘binge drinking’ although it was initially a measure brought in to relive the pressure on town centre police from being overstretched when all the pubs closed at 11.00 and the congestion caused by late night revellers fighting for all night buses and taxies.

As for introducing a minimum price for a unit of alcohol, well on the face of it, it may well increase the tax that will go into the treasury and may even go some way to reducing ‘binge drinking’ in certain quarters, but it will have no effect what so ever on those people who religiously go out on a Friday and Saturday night purely to get smashed. Nor will it have any effect on the guy on the bench, who may appear dirty, and apparently not have two pennies to rub together, but he will always have enough money for a ‘Tennents Super’ or bottle or two of cider, before The Cotton Bale opens for breakfast at 8.00am!

So here again we have totally out of touch politicians introducing another knee-jerk move by the that will just penalises responsible drinkers.

The tolerance and acceptance of drunkenness in our society is our problem. Watching people exit clubs and pubs, and causing a nuisance and decorating the place with ‘pavement peter’ should be tackled head on.

There is no need for any further banning or meddling. All that is required is that the current law be implemented. In most pubs, drunks are NOT ALLOWED to be served alcohol. If landlords flaunt this they should or lose their licence. Drunks are NOT ALLOWED on streets; so arrest them and fine them.

Being drunk and disorderly in a public place is an offence and should be ruthlessly enforced. Let's have zero tolerance! Minimum fines should be £500 and doubled for each repeat offence and should be duly recorded. Once people realise that carrying a criminal record for being found drunk & disorderly is one that will accompany them throughout their careers; they might then begin take responsibility for their own actions.

In order to alleviate some of the financial burden on the NHS by ‘Binge Drinking’ the Government should also consider imposing a ‘fee’ of say £75.00 for any treatment given to people who present themselves at Accident & Emergency who display any alcohol related injuries drink induced illnesses.

Once we take the glamour out of being seen as a habitual drunk and reintroduce  drunkenness in public as something one should be ashamed off, the sooner we will see a change in the nations drinking habits.

And as for politicians and their peculiar sense of logic, well it would be nice if they could be consistent.

                                                                                                  If they think higher taxes on drink deters drinking, higher taxes on tobacco deters smoking, and higher taxes on motoring deters driving, why don’t they see that higher taxes on earning and working hard deters working, and higher taxes on profits and enterprise deters job creating investment ventures?

Note to David Cameron, - “Remember, it’s not your money – someone else earned it”