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The Daily Mash - 24-HOUR DRINKING WOULD HAVE WORKED IF BRITAIN WASN'T DREADFUL, SAY EXPERTS
BRITAIN'S experiment with 24-hour drinking would have succeeded if the country was not filled to the brim with the worst people in the world, it was claimed last night.

As the government outlined plans to reintroduce stricter licensing laws, experts said Britain could still have a 'continental-style café culture' if it swapped populations with France.



Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 28th, 2010 at 12:12:23 PM EST
24 hour drinking would work better if music were banned after 10:00 and if lager and alcopops were outlawed on grounds of taste.

In fact, if only real ale, real cider and organic wines were permitted to be sold. I don't say that simply because the first is my preference. There are good reasons why you can't get too rowdy on them and so they encourage the behaviour that they claim to prefer.

but too many high st pubs are owned by high volume low quality teenage booze-a-thon chains and so there isn't a chance that good behaviour could be encouraged or rewarded.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jul 28th, 2010 at 12:23:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Having spent Saturday evening on the late bus, with someone who smelt like they had vomited over themselves on the seat behind, and two drunken teenagers on the seat in front who had yet to learn how much perfume it is sensible or politic to apply on the seat in front while weaving through queues outside nightclubs I think you may be right.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 28th, 2010 at 01:33:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
As I understand it, in areas where it was applied fully (rather than strangled by the local council) 24 hour drinking licenses (mostly just later opening, not actual 24 hours) did have some of the intended (positive) effects:

a) By staggering closing times in parts of Leeds and Manchester the number of fights at taxi ranks as the night draws to a close went down.

b) Total alcohol consumption did not increase by as much as the hours indicated - rather the same amount of drinking was spread over a longer period, the end of hours scramble was reduced.

The end of the policy is a shame in three ways, IMO:

  1. Local councils rarely implemented the policy on a larger scale, skewing the results. Positive areas like those I mentioned have been ignored.

  2. Restricted hours leads to greater drinking at cheaper supermarket prices, to cover socialising "out of licensing hours."

  3. You don't create a "cafe culture" overnight. People actually have to settle into the belief that their ability to buy alcohol is not going to be restricted before they'll change behaviour away from certain "feast or famine" activities. Policies for this kind of change require long term commitment.

  4. Binge drinking in particular was a huge concern before the licensing laws changed. I'll admit that I haven't followed the evidence closely, but I haven't seen any major changes to the trend. While that means the policy hasn't been an instant success (see 3) it also suggests there needs to be an actual case made for changing back...
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Jul 28th, 2010 at 02:27:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
the thing is that, like most govt policy, neither the introduction nor the current repeal were evidence led.

So Labour introduced it with a series of far-fetched claims that could never come to pass and the failure to reach those heady heights is good enough reason for the tories to repeal.

none of them actually cares if it's a good or bad policy, they just want kudos for doing stuff

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Wed Jul 28th, 2010 at 02:51:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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