But Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation, said: "For the last couple of years we haven't seen the decrease in alcohol-related offences.

"We have seen an increase in the number of police officers assaulted."

Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the Local Government Association which represents local authorities, said the idea that late-night licences would end binge drinking had totally failed.

He said policing resources were being stretched further into the night because of people who had been drinking.

One result is that therefore there are less police available during the day.

Even if it had decreased it would still be a terrible problem, with hospitals having to pick up the pieces and their staff often attacked by drunks. Arguably we need a lot more media coverage:

 Globally violence accounts for over a million deaths each year and consequently has been declared an international public health priority. The UK is no exception to this global epidemic and experiences an estimated two and a half million incidents of violence each year; in many of these (44%) the offender was believed to have been drinking 1. Across the UK, a large proportion of alcohol-related violence occurs in nightlife settings. More than a fifth of all violence in England and Wales takes place in or around pubs and clubs and here 80% of incidents involve alcohol 2. Such violence has devastating impacts on the health of victims, yet also places huge burdens on wider society and public services, particularly criminal justice and health services 3,4. The costs of alcohol-related violence to public services, the economy and individuals are astounding with, for example, the national costs of alcohol-related crime and disorder estimated at £7.8bn a year.

http://www.cph.org.uk/showPublication.aspx?pubid=275

You can't price people out of pubs, booze there is already much more expensive than in supermarkets and off-licences. Yet you can't use the price mechanism for the off-trade cos France isn't far away where it is much cheaper anyway.

We've been over this before. Price IS a factor - not, of course, not the only one, but an important one. At the moment people in the UK can drink  more cheaply than used to be the case (see below). Prices need to be increased in pubs, supermarkets, etc. The problem is made worse by some supermarkets selling it as loss leaders. Some people getting drunk that way, some using it to get ready to drink even more in pubs.

Not everyone in the UK can easily pop over to France and the fact that a policy isn't going to be 100% successful doesn't mean that it isn't going to be effective in general.  

Alcohol has become relatively cheaper in the UK. From the Institute of Alcohol studies, Feb 28 2007:

despite the relatively high level of the taxes in a European context, they are declining in real terms. Duties on spirits have not been increased since 1997, while those on beer and wine have been adjusted for inflation, they have not kept pace with the growth in personal incomes, so alcohol in general has become steadily more affordable.

http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/tax.pdf

RE prices, consumption and Labour policy:

 The last Conservative Government's public health strategy, `Health of the Nation', which included the target of reducing the number of heavy drinkers in the population, did commit the Chancellor to taking health into account in setting excise duties each year.
However, this commitment was discarded by the Labour Government which took office in 1997, and the National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy published in 2004 explicitly rejects tax as a means of tackling harm.
...

In arriving at these conclusions, the Government was rejecting the advice of virtually the whole scientific and public health community based on the accumulated international evidence that the price of alcohol is one of the principal influences on levels of alcohol consumption and harm, and, particularly in a high alcohol tax country like the UK, tax is a major determinant of price.

A range of studies have found that increasing the price of alcohol can reduce road accidents and fatalities; workplace injuries; deaths from cirrhosis of the liver; various kinds of violent crime, including assaults, rapes, robberies and homicide, and spouse and child abuse.

A recent illustration of the link between tax, price and health is provided by Finland, where in 2004 the Government reduced alcohol excise duty by an average of 33% in order to reduce the number of cheap imports from abroad. The result was an immediate 17% increase in alcohol-related mortality, equivalent to approximately additional alcohol-related deaths per week;

http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/factsheets/tax.pdf

Tesco, Britain's biggest supermarket chain, said that if alcohol prices were to be increased, new laws were needed. If supermarkets agreed among themselves to raise prices they would be in breach of competition rules. Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's executive director for corporate and legal affairs, said that any changes must apply to all retailers, or shoppers would simply go to cheaper outlets. "All shops that sell alcohol need to act together and this is where we are being held back by the law," she said. "The only safe solution is for the Government to initiate and lead these discussions."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3412896.ece

One comment:

It is a bit rich of Tesco to be offering leadership on this issue, when they are one of the biggest culprits - e.g. the constant barrage of loss-leading wines, and beer that is sold cheaper than water, all to seduce customers into spending more on other shopping.
The Government should act decisively for once, making it illegal to use alcohol as a loss-leader, enforced by regulatory controls with large fines for culprits like Tesco. Similar enforcement should stop 'Happy Hours' & price promotions, with (well publicised) zero tolerance of drunken behaviour. Duty should be raised, with a special focus on drinks that are commonly used in binge drinking, eg lager; cider; alco-pops.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3412896.ece

... for the most part, drunk Japanese people don't get into fights.

And they don't drive much either, which I think is the real problem in France rather that street violence.

Facts, selfish little bastards. They don't even care about your feelings.

In the British case, where is the percieved problem?  Is it just puritan handwringing over people drinking too much?  Is it drunk violence?  Is it people ending up in the hospital from drinking too much?

All of that.  There is the moralistic overtone some groups which is unhelpful in actually tackling the problems.    But largely you get big groups of people going out and getting utterly wasted on many, many drinks - binge drinking is a big problem.  People ending up in hospital from alcohol poisoning, or through fighting or being assaulted.  Fights are very common, from fairly continuous arguments and small brawls to full out fights with people having bottles smashed in their faces, often for no good reason.  Drunk people assaulting the police and paramedics makes the news fairly often.

A completely different atmosphere.  Then there is alcoholism and domestic violence within the homes, problems with underage drinking.  Longer term health issues of liver disease and other alcohol related illnesses.

Brits are generally not getting the concept of drinking sensibly.  I think the core values that are held on how to conduct oneself must be very different between the UK and Japan.

Ad astra per aspera