Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
These are the people who invented absinthe, after all.
Denormalisation of alcohol
- Thread starter Maurice Picarda
- Start date
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
tap/optic prices have always been out of step with retail and thats a factor, considering the gulf between the price per unit/drink from the two has got a lot wider. Especially in anywhere that counts as a big town centre or a city. Students are notoriously always a bit skint unless they are scions of the rich or whatever. And of course, you can't even have a fag. I presume there must be many more crated houseparties and so on.
Nancy_Winks
Well-Known Member
Students predrink at each other's houses then go straight to clubs/venues. That's what my fb tells me anyway...
So many spanish drinking beers, wine at 10am all over the show, especially ime in south, Alicante way. Beers, wine, pickles, nuts, sinking half a litre beer, coffees with alcohol in them, liqueurs...incredibly impressed i am.
I think the Belgian factor is accounted for by foreigners employed there more than natives;
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
choice of product dictated by what you're told is nice initially: it's not like anyone eould go to whiskey or real ale unless they thought they were worth sticking with, that they were a taste worth acquiringChoice of product is reinforced by what you think tastes nice. Anyone who says otherwise is either a non-drinker or a child. Being that the first of those categories aren't going to be wooed by the pretty colours anyway, and the second category are not allowed to buy booze, the whole packaging thing is a load of bollocks.
People aren't fucking stupid. Well, some of us here aren't anyway.
Ironically, I think it would help immensely to reduce the booze duties paid by on-licensees (pubs, restaurants, etc) to encourage drinking socially while leaving the duty paid by off-licenses at a higher level.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
If I lived in Belgium I'd drink a lot too.
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
Binge drinking is only part of the picture. While Italy does better than the UK in terms of the health impacts of alcohol, the same isn't true for France http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/160680/e96457.pdf.
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
I think the government should stop taking money from alcohol companies and instead fund video game companies as video gaming is a much less dangerous hobby than drinking alcohol
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
maomao
普費斯
How would cutting one source of revenue provide funding for something else?
Take the funding from the wanker bankersHow would cutting one source of revenue provide funding for something else?
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
I reckon the best way forward would be for the police to have a crackdown on actually enforcing the laws that already exist against being drunk and disorderly / drunk and incapable, plus lots more fines of pubs that serve people who are already drunk. And then some active encouragement via tax exemptions or whatever of evening-opening businesses that don't serve alcohol. And perhaps a restriction in the number of off licences to make alcohol a bit harder to buy which would also encourage more use of pubs which at least serve additional positive social functions.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Define 'drunk'.
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
That's up to the law to do isn't it? And the Licensing Act 2003 makes it illegal to sell alcohol to someone who is drunk, or to try and buy it on their behalf. Anyone found guilty of the offence can be fined up to £1,000 but it never really happens.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
If drunk is under the influence of alcohol, that's me after a couple of units (to a minor extent).
YouSir
Retired from Urban
First off it's subjective, unless you breathalyse which you can't in a pub. Secondly who are you fining? Low paid bar staff? The same ones who'll have to deal with the aggro when someone disagrees about how drunk they are? Landlords of already struggling pubs? It's just a recipe for making life harder for people working, jobs more precarious and businesses more insecure.
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure how they define drunk for serving at a bar. But 'drunk and incapable' is when you are so drunk you are unable to stand or walk or unaware of what you are doing or unable to understand what is said to you. Now if my drinking-problem-partner actually got arrested for that rather than just having all his friends think it's a great laugh it might help get through to him that he needs to think about treatment.If drunk is under the influence of alcohol, that's me after a couple of units (to a minor extent).
Whereas banning advertising or increasing minimum pricing certainly wouldn't help him.
lazythursday
Well-Known Member
Well you can breathalyse in a pub, as some clubs are now breathalysing people on the way in. Not that I'm advocating that mind! Yeah it's subjective but if landlords actually feared the possibility of being fined they would err a bit more on the side of caution. The fact is fines never happen so people who are obviously very drunk get served.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
I've certainly been chucked out of a few places or not been served due to being at that level. I've been refused entry to places also way before that. As YouSir said, it's totally subjective.
mr steev
magic thought wizard
I think all that would do would make more people drink at home, cause even more pub closures and make local shops suffer.
The only way to stop problem/excessive drinking is to address the cause(s), educate and provide help for those suffering from addiction. Prohibition does not work, and all atempts to curtail peoples drinking by limiting access or extreme pricing hits the poor most, both in their pockets and their bonds with the local community.
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Some football grounds too.
The 2003 Act just restated older laws in that respect, AFAIK. An actual fine is pretty rare, though, and it's usually just dealt with via a fixed penalty. There was a spate of it round here ten years ago, when I was still pulling pints in the student union for a living and the OB were trying to be seen to do something about the 'binge drinking' business. It's fair enough in itself - makes no sense to give more booze to someone who's so pissed they can't stand up - but please don't go suggesting the law ought to be used aggressively against people who are peaceably tipsy or bar staff just trying to do their jobs. From a barman's POV it's sometimes difficult to tell who's in a fit state to be served and who isn't anyway: at a crowded bar with loud music on it's not that easy to tell if someone's staggering pissed or slurring their words a bit.
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
How about a ban on the consumption or distribution of alcohol in workplaces other than licensed premises? Wouldn't reduce sales by all that much, but sends a clear message.
YouSir
Retired from Urban
How would you make a fine stick without the definite limit from a breathalyser though? Could just endlessly be appealed. Unless you have secret shopper style drinkers testing places, which would be an interesting job. And even if landlords had the fear they just pass the fear down to staff who'll be in a shitty position trying to deal with drunks, as well as getting fined themselves.
Plenty of pubs will cut people off, best you can do I reckon is support the good ones because there'll never be a time when someone with a will to can't get a drink *somewhere*.
mr steev
magic thought wizard
My alcoholic brother-in-law got arrrested several times and banned from pubs. He just started drinking alone more, at home, over the fields, in fucking phone boxes, until finally it got the better of him
YouSir
Retired from Urban
What places would that apply to?
Johnny Vodka
The Abominable Scotsman
Where I used to work, at a couple of points in the year, we'd get free food put on plus booze. Sounds like your suggestion would stop that sort of thing? Probably one of the few perks of the job.
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