24 hour drinking

[funkyrich]

Can someone please tell me how by extending the opening hours of pubs/clubs that this will somehow solve drunkeness,disorder,vomiting in the street etc?It seems a strange solution to the goverment's supposed objective. Its like someone attempting to solve a rodent problem by putting out cheese..

Mind you this goverment is a mass of contradiction so I shouldn't be surprised..

[Chessman]

Of course it won't, no-one in their right mind thinks it will, the same people will still go out and get drunk, and cause mayhem, only the temptation will be there for more to do it, just give it time.

Its another nail in the coffin of this country.

'Englands green and pleasant lands'. Not for much longer.

'There'll always be an England'. Not for much longer.

[dannydingbat]

It's a tool to deal with a multitude of sins. The main thrust of the legislation, if you believe the media. is 24 hour drinking. It is not true. There's a lot more to it. Decisions on who is allowed to do what are made by elected Councils now reather than unelected magistrates. This is supposed to reflect local needs for local people. Secondly, there is now a lot more responsibility on landlords to ensure that their activities do not cause problems other wise the sanctions on them could put them out of business. Previously, they knew that they could do anthing they wanted because magistrates could only take away their licences and they would not be inclined to do that except in the most serious of cases. .Now they face temporary closedown if disorder or noise result, suspension, removal of licensable activities from the licence, reduced hours. Residents, police etc can also ask for a review of the licence at any time.

The legislation needed to be changed anyway as anyone wanting a quiet drink after 11pm could not do so, the only way to buy alcohol legally was in a premises which provided music for dancing. Once the Government decided to do that, they lumped all sorts of other controls which needed updating. In addition, we would never have been able to get the Olympic games without new opening hours. So there are allsorts of society, cultural and political reasons for this Act.

Clearly, a change in the drinking culture will not happen overnight but there was no reason to purpetuate a situation where everyone turned out of pubs at once, all wasted, just after 11pm. Give it a few years and you will see a different type of nighttime economy

[LazyGun]

It has also been commented on many times by many different observers that the drinking culture is significantly different in the UK compared to anywhere else in Europe. One of the major issues was felt to be the phenomenon of speed drinking, where people went out at 8 or 9 ish then promply felt the need to load up with as much alcohol as they could before the 11-11:30 closing time.By extending the licencing hours, this would allow people to be more relaxed about their drinking. In my view its long past time that the licencing laws in this country were relaxed so that adults could decide to drink whenever they wished.

danny has also pointed out the other changes in the legislation which are designed to make it easier for local people to have an influence over the activities of bars pubs and clubs.

Other moves afoot are to restrict the practice of happy hour and cut price drinks and to introduce more seating into pubs, since cheap alcohol and so called vertical drinking are also considered to be part of the problem.

What no legislation will change however, is the cultural belief in this country that in order to have a good time you need to be ******.I am not sure what can change that.

Finally, any govenment attempting to hold the centre ground of British politics is likely to appear to be a mass of contradictions, depending on which end of the political spectrum you are viewing it from :)

[Gef]

It won't make any diiference but don't believe what Chessman says.

[Laurinha]

I think they should give people a little more credit - we're not all savages. The 24hr drinking worls in a multitude of other countries world wide. I think it will encourage people to pace themselves instead of throwing drinks down your neck before closing time and it will stop the sudden throngs of people on the streets at once ofter closing - I am in favour.

[joko]

funky - it was never intended to 'solve' drunkeness disorder and vomiting! that is not something that can ever be 'solved'. it is about freedom of choice too

However it does also have a benefit of lessening some of the effects, in that 100's of drunk people piling out onto the streets at 11 oclock or 2am causes violence, fights, arguments, chaos, congestion, huge queues for food and taxis etc etc etc

this way people can come and go at their leisure - and not feel the need to down a few shorts at at last orders, thereby getting much drunker in a shorter time

[Buenchico]

As someone who is a total believer in moving towards a '24 hour society', I obviously welcome the introduction of more relaxed licensing laws. (I would love to see all shops open 24 hours and schools, college, offices, etc, all working a shift system and being open day and night).

This, however, does not stop me being slightly p***ed off with the drunken revellers, celebrating the first late night of Saturday drinking, who decided that my car would look rather better without one of the wiper arms!

Chris

[kick3m0n]

Ah well Chessman, those of us who live in Wales, Ireland or Scotland will be watching the demise of England only then? Are you American or something? They're the only race dumb enough to habitually use "England" to mean anywhere between 1 and 4 countries comprising the UK. D'Oh!

[dannydingbat]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet but a good lever to help prevent drunken behaviour are the following offences:

Allowing disorderly conduct on licensed premises -

�1000 fine, possible closure and review of licence

Selling alcohol to someone who is drunk -

�1000 fine, possible loss of personal licence

Obtaining alcohol for someone who is drunk -

�1000 fine

Concentrates the mind!

[chinois]

I dont think it's got anything to do with what people want. The government wants to do it for their own reasons, of which giving people freedom is not one of.

Also, calling it as 'relaxing the law' is bonkers. The law has changed but it remains just as tight. The laws will be enforced just as rigorously and even more so in the honeymoon period. Relaxed drinking laws would be like in many countries (spain & poland that i know of) where the landlord is allowed to make a decision whether to serve someone or not. If there's enough people buying drinks they'll stay open, if there's not they'll close. Simple market forces. Adding beer to british vending machines is a simple way to 'relax' laws.

[Octavius]

I think there might be far more drink related issues in the UK if they reduced the legal drinking times to 2 hours a day. Utter chaos would ensue. Imagine it, anarchy.

I don't believe it was intended as a solution to drunk and disorderly behaviour so how will it ever solve it if that is what you expect? I am all for it, even though I am almost at the age where finishing up at 11pm is plenty enough for me. But as mentioned above, when I am out with the missus for a quiet few drinks at our local and we don't fancy going to a tenny-bopping nightclub, at least we know we can relax and have some more and still behave responsibly.

Honestly, binge drinking and drunken violence, alcoholism, vomiting, hangovers, needing a wee etc etc has been around for centuries, just because it is in the news, don't mean it is new.

24 Hour drinking + a complete smoking ban, then my nights out with her indoors are sorted!