Morning:
2°c
So time is to be called on our 24-hour drinking culture. But why penalise everyone for the abject behaviour of a few? There's nothing wrong with 24-hour drinking per se. It is the mark of a tolerant, civilised society.
The Government is now promising to usher in a new era of more responsible drinking. Which means, in effect, more legislation, more restrictions and more expensive alcohol for the rest of us who don't binge-drink — and extra revenue for the Exchequer.
Price hikes on alcohol are justified by claiming it will deter the sort of mayhem that blights many of our towns and cities. But if you want to binge-drink, you will do so whatever the cost. Just ask any alcoholic.
Britain has always been a nation of drinkers and nothing is going to change that. Maybe it's something to do with our temperate climate. As Henry Fielding observed in Tom Jones, “no nation produces so many drunken quarrels, especially among the lower people, than England (for indeed with them to drink and to fight are together almost synonymous terms)”.
There is no solution — apart from abstinence or very stiff fines for persistent offenders. If there are problem areas then they should be dealt with or made subject to temporary curfew. But please let the rest of “Big Society” look after itself. If we are being asked to take more responsibility for our lives, why can't we look after our own drinking habits?
What is remarkable is how few pubs have remained open throughout the night since the advent of round-the clock licensing in 2005. Whenever I walk past mine it is invariably empty or closed before midnight. Restricting licensing hours once more could have the opposite effect: it will revive the cult of downing as many pints as possible before closing time, it will glamorise late-night drinking and speakeasys will flourish. There is currently nothing remotely glamorous about going to drink at a pub at 6am.
There is also a strong whiff of humbug and hypocrisy about this crusade against alcohol. What about the subsidised bars of the parliamentary estate? At the moment the Commons is one of the cheapest places in London for a pint of beer. Politicians should get their own house in order before preaching to the rest of us.
Blaming society's problems on alcohol is nonsense. As HL Mencken said: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
The latest hobgoblin is a drunken yob bent on violence, marauding the high street. Never mind about hugging hoodies. We should learn to hug every hobgoblin the Government sends our way.
Power to an old boy from Brazil
Now that the party season is over, I have exchanged my party frock for a culture frock. This week I went to Neil Simon's Prisoner of Second Avenue (so-so), Terence Rattigan's After the Dance (superb) and on Wednesday I saw Gilberto Gil at the Festival Hall as part of the Southbank's Festival of Brazil.
Gil refused to play his crowd- pleasing hits (spoilsport) and instead we were treated to forró songs from north-east Brazil and some surreal Brazilian renditions of Scottish dance tunes. But such is his charm that he had the audience dancing in the palm of his hand.
At 68, Gil has reached the pinnacle of cool. To prove it he showed us he can do what the hell he likes.
How Labour went bananas
What is it about New Labour and bananas? In February there was alarm among health experts when it emerged that Gordon Brown was chomping nine bananas a day as a substitute for KitKats. And no one can forget that photograph of David Miliband.
So how should Lord Mandelson, in his autobiography, describe being called back to government in October 2008? “The most fateful four hours of my political life were also the most surreal,” Mandy's book starts. “They began on the afternoon of the first Thursday of October 2008, across a tray of sandwiches, yoghurt and slightly over-ripe bananas, with Gordon Brown in 10 Downing Street.”
HG Wells story. Set in modern Kent. No sci-fi
A short story competition to celebrate the work of HG Wells failed to attract a single entry — despite the £1,000 prize money. Competitors had to submit entries in their handwriting, were forbidden from writing about sci-fi and had to focus on modern life in Kent. What barmy rules. If only such strictures could apply to the Booker.
Reader views (3)
It's not the 24 hour thing that's the problem...it's the binge culture in which we now live. THAT won't stop no matter what the law dictates. As you say, for people who drink responsibly, it means that they too will be penalised. Banning the 24 hour drinking will make no difference whatsoever to the people for whom this is a normal way of life !!
- jb, sussex, 25/07/2010 09:26
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This is what you get for supporting the smoking ban. You fell for the divide and conquer strategy of the puritans and now they are targeting your preferred vice.
You were warned but you did not listen.
- John Smith, London, 24/07/2010 11:57
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Binge drinking is a cultural problem. Finland (a country I have visited many times) has relaxed pub opening laws but the retail of alcohol has been state-owned and strictly controlled since 1932. Prices are high and taxation increases with the strength of the liquor. Alas, the system penalizes the responsible drinker. If you want three bottles of a good red wine because you have friends around for dinner, be prepared to spend a lot. But if you just want to get drunk as quickly as possible, there is no need for a fine Bordeaux; two six-packs of the cheapest, locally brewed lager on an empty stomach will do the trick. The bottom line: as long as people think that getting smashed is the coolest way to spend a Saturday night, there will be a problem - end of story. How does one change this? I'm afraid we might as well try to ban rice in China.
- John, London, 23/07/2010 13:46
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