scatter gun approach.

[mrspask]

I see that we may be in for another alcohol price hyke.Who agrees that this would have NO effect on binge drinking[usually associated with todays youth] but would effect the usual well behaved,moderate,law abiding,majority of which I am a member.I am not a binge drinker so why should I be penalised for something I do not do?Mr Cameron,you are an idiot,and this suggestion is no vote catcher!!

[jenstar]

It's only a speculative idea. It's unlikely to come to anything.

[jno]

if Cameron has suggested this, there's no immediate chance of it happening. He's not in power.

[sp1814]

If the price of a pint were raised by 7p, and say, a binge drinker went through ten pints on a Saturday night...he/she will be spending a whopping 70p extra per night.

It will have no effect at all on anyone. 70p in an evening is negligable.

[samsong7]

Does Cameron and Co. REALLY think that putting 7 pemnce on a pint of beer will stop binge drinking? Think about it. When the youths of today go drinking, they might have between 7 and 10 pints all night. This increase of 7 pence a pint will add a maximum of 70 pence to their night out. Wow, well thought out Mr Cameron. I am sure it will make them stay in at night if you do go ahead with the increase. For the life of me I can't see why you and the do good brigade don't leave young people alone and let them enjoy life

[Gromit]

It saddens me that there is no effective opposition to the Government. That is not healthy. I am in dismay at Cameron. His 'policy' initiatives all seem very ill-thought out. The problem of alcohol abuse and related street violence in our towns and cities is a very real one. This attempt at a solution is dismal and shows no real understanding. After the negative ressponse this 'idea' has elicited, I suspect it will not be in the next Tory manifesto.

[jake-the-peg]

Have to agree - it's no new phenominum though - Britains have been 'binge drinkers' for hundreds of years - slapping a bit of extra tax on it isn't going to change us!

Oh of course it's worth noting that for hundreds of years the ' well behaved law abiding majority' have been whining about it

Hogarth's Gin lane for example?
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/spec/hogar th/images/1.69.jpg

[samsong7]

As a teenager in the Swinging Sixties, as people like to call it, we used to go boozing when we were 15 or 16 years old.With the Disco's opening up in most pubs, it was quite easy to get into the back rooms, all in darkness apart from the flashing lights, to have a few beers. Yes, there were fights between rival gangs occasionally, but there were NEVER any knives used.It seems that the government cannot address what the teenagers of today want, they only strive to take away what they already have. I DO NOT condone the kids who are falling all over the place because of the booze, but I do not think there is anything wrong if they want a bottle of cider in the park, as long as they clear up after themselves.

[jake-the-peg]

NEVER?


1967
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_co unties/5230362.stm


1968
A man is stabbed and killed when he intervened in a fight outside a railway club in Glasgow.
http://www.btp.police.uk/History%20Society/Pub lications/History%20Society/The%20history/A%20 Time%20Line%20for%20Policing%20the%20Railways% 201950%20-%201979.htm

1969
Altamont incident where a member of the Rolling Stones Audience was stabbed to death watching a concert

just a quick trawl

[samsong7]

If you can only find 3 stabbings for the whole of Great Britain in a decade that doesn't seem too bad. I think you will find that amount in one day now. I was referring to my local area when I said there were NEVER any knives used. I was also making the point about teenagers drinking in the 1960s. Any statistics on that available?
I think you will find that no one moaned about the teenagers having a drink. They certainly didn't get arrested and cautioned as they do today

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, i cant see it solving anything. The kids who are binge drinking will just purchase cheaper ale and be even worse.
Also, i think its just another way of trying to claw back revenue from the losses of the smoking ban in public places.
I also heard a rumour that they are gonna put a price increase on tops with a hood. Apparently because so many hoodies are causing trouble, they are gonna penalise everyone...

[jake-the-peg]

I could only find one per year in the first 20 seconds of looking! As I said just a quick trawl

Conclusions drawn on personal experience of ones local area are not likely to be very reliable.

They rest on how in touch people were with what was going on, reporting of various things, how good their memory is etc. etc. etc.

I can't believe you don't think teenages didn't get drunk and get arrested in your day - what about the famous riots between Mods and Rockers along Brighton seafront?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stori es/may/18/newsid_2511000/2511245.stm

The very word "Hooligan" first arrived in Police reports in London at the end of the 19th century.

I think you may be suffering from rose-tinted-spectacle-itis a bit!

[samsong7]

Why do some people get so deep into these items. Yes, there were mods and rockers, yes there were were running battles on the beaches. The point I am trying to make is that the government didn't put the price of beer up to try and stop it ! Neither did they make it against the law to congregate in groups or stop you having a good time.Kids nowadays do not have any freedom at all.I think people were more tolerant in the past. Nothing to do with rose tinted glasses. I am just telling it as it was.Maybe people spent more time outdoors rather than sitting huddled over a computer all day looking up info on what they can complain about. I can't believe that some people have time to keep looking up little links to items to prove a point to themselves.

[NJOK]

Yeah, arguments based on evidence are annoying aren't they?

[Gromit]

I think samsong7 gripe is about thread-jacking. We all seem to be in agreement about Camerons idea being b0llocks. But then it goes off-topic and a discussion on crime statistics over the last two hundred years.

[Kathyan]

I think the problem lies with alcohol being too freely available. I lived in Canada for three years where they have liquor stores and you have to be 21 (with photographoc proof) to enter them. You can't buy alcohol anywhere else unless you are in a pub. It is also illegal to drink on the streets and to have alcohol showing in your car (it has to be put in the boot).

[MrBen5]

Hmmm, Canada must be a real fun place to live...

[Kathyan]

Yes, actually, it is. At least the streets aren't cluttered with drunks at night.

[whippetycros]

I wonder if the baby boomers, born between 43 and 63, who are or were parents, who now apparently have drink related health problems have taught the younger how to binge drink.

[Bazile]

Who on earth has Cameron got , thinking up these daft ideas - god help us if he should win the next election ( I suspect it is someone secretly sympathetic to the Labour party :-) )

Until most people are aware , or more importantly bothered about the consequences of alcohol , this problem will not go away .

Incidentally I was watching a programme the other day about people who drank heavilly and also those who drank lightly .
The eye opener was that tests on light drinkers - a couple of glasses of wine a day - showed this was having an adverse effect on their livers , and that they were storing up trouble , which came as quite a shock to the participants .

The programme showed a distraught lady in hospital whose liver was - not to put too fine a point on it - knackered , wishing she could turn the clock back

Sadly , given the culture nowadays I suspect that , not even showing this lady's predicament to some people , would alter thier drinking habits .
I can hear the ' if only ' chorous's ringing out , further on down the line .

[wired]

Where I lived until recently, the underage drinkers usually bought bottles of vodka from small off licences so that they could have a few drinks before they went out.When parents complained to the authorities about these shops nothing more than warnings were issued.I'm sure many of us have been there and done that but sadly today it seems to be to the exclusion of all else.