Britain's alcohol problem.

Originally posted by Suspiria

Originally posted by michaelmcclen
reply to post by Suspiria

 

The LEGAL age is 16 in clubs and pubs when accompanied with an adult for a meal.

No honestly it's NOT.
Care to elaborate the particular places you are referring to? I'm sure the publican is looking forward to losing their license.

edit on 1-8-2011 by Suspiria because: (no reason given)

It honestly is...

What the law says

It is against the law:

* to be drunk in charge of a child under seven in a public place or on licensed premises
* to sell alcohol to someone under 18, anywhere
* for an adult to buy or attempt to buy alcohol on behalf of someone under 18
* for someone under 18 to buy alcohol, attempt to buy alcohol or to be sold alcohol in any circumstances (unless acting at the request of the police or a weights and measures inspector)
* for someone under 18 to drink alcohol in licensed premises, with one exception - 16 and 17 year olds accompanied by an adult can drink but not buy beer, wine and cider with a table meal
* for an adult to buy alcohol for a person under 18 for consumption on licensed premises, except as above
www.direct.gov.uk...

the limits are on licensed premises and drink free areas... aside from that it is not illegal for parents to give children as young as 5 alcohol.. and medical approval is needed for children younger than 5.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Cheers m8

In the UK we do have a big drinking culture, however it is over exagerated quite a bit, and the main reason is the drinking allowence that they throw around all the time. There is no evidence to support the 21 units a week, yes it is unhealthy to indulge on, but isn't fatty foods? Everyone is different and everyone has a different allowence, depending on size, age, health problems, metabolism, fitness, ect ect. However, the news loves to jump on this to use it in their statistics to show how much of a problem it is, because this is the kind of news that sells, and gives the gov. an excuse to continue to raise the tax's on alcohol. The truth is, if it wasn't for alcohol sales in the UK, the NHS would be long gone for the gov. wouldnt have the funding to keep it running, they hardley have enough as it is at the moment! Just to show you, the top 5 drinking nations per capita;
1. Uganda - 19.47lts
2.Luxembourg - 17.54ltrs
3.Czech Republic - 16.21lrts
4.Ireland - 14.45ltrs
5.Republic of Maldova - 13.88ltrs

Alcohol consumption for the United States is: 8.51 litres, Canada: 8.26 litres, UK: 10.39 litres, Australia: 9.19 litres. Alcohol is consumed by large proportions of adults in most countries around the world. Though not causing significant problems for most drinkers, alcohol use is associated with numerous negative consequences for the drinker and society at large. Globally alcohol causes 3.2% of all deaths or 1.8 million deaths annually and accounts for 4.0% of disease burden. Many of these deaths are the result of injuries caused by hazardous and harmful drinking. Of the total number of the global alcohol-attributable deaths, 32.0% are from unintentional injuries, and 13.7% are from intentional injuries. This means that about half of the deaths attributable to alcohol are from injuries. Worldwide, adults consume on average 5 litres of pure alcohol from beer, wine and spirits per year. The average alcohol consumption is highest in Europe, followed by the Americas and by Africa. Alcohol consumption tends to increase with economic development. However, consumption remains low in some regions where the majority of the population is Muslim.

Source


Back to me pedigree

reply to post by Trolloks


I can testify with my glass of hennesy and coke to us being 4th on that list *cheers* Althrough i never get drunk , i toss my car keys to the missus to drive for the day and I would quite happly drink all day some days.

When I say drink all day I mean like 1 unit every 3 hours, pour a pint of JD and coke and just chill in my garden, its called my Saturday.

Originally posted by Trolloks

Back to me pedigree

Lightweight!

Originally posted by chocise

Originally posted by Trolloks

Back to me pedigree

Lightweight!

If your on the special brew, your on a mission. Nasty nasty stuff.

reply to post by michaelmcclen




Nectar of the Gods, and the Royal Danish Court. Brewed for your own mighty Churchill who thought european lagers were pish. MUST be drunk well chilled [in moderation], tarnished by the scots, and other tramps.

reply to post by chocise


Aye your right about it being tarnished lol, largers give me a nasty headache althrough since being from Ireland my tipple of choice from largers is Harp.

The only time i recommend a strong larger is if you cant sleep, I remember living in Germany years ago I had nick names for two german beers.

One was Carlsberg Elephant beer, Could knock an Elephant out and the other was spelled like ratz killar and you can assume it would infact knock a rat out no problem.

Drink is like personalities , each to their own =)

And while I'm having some fun, here's a famous British Isles pint from the Emarld Isle.



Looks a thousands dollars, but tastes like utter kak. You can down 15 pints of this and still put an IKEA flatpack together. What a waste of money!

reply to post by chocise


Lol, ol' special brew. Could always step it up a notch, a lil creation of mine i like to call Super Snakebite.

1 can of Super Strongbow (7.5% for those who are unfarmilier)
1 can of Special Brew or Tennents Super
Mix and pour into 2 pint glass's
Instant amnesia

As for Guiness, how dare you! lol. There is a way to get drunk off it if you drink it right. 2 pints of Guiness, followed by a pint of larger, i dont know why or how, but it works, must be the bubbles as they say.

reply to post by chocise


I must be one of the few legitimate Irish peons that think it tastes like pish. After admiting that im waiting for the guards to come and take my citizenship off me.

Ooops, sorry Mac, no offense to yer Irish roots. You celts have a lot in common with us.

All the best.

Originally posted by chocise
What do you expect?

A country with no direction, no light at the end of a very bleak tunnel for your children or even their children, bugger all to do, everyone in seats of privilege with their own noses in the trough, a looming pensions crisis on par with the current financial mess. No future. It's inevitable.

edit on 1-8-2011 by chocise because: pensions

What rubbish. I used to live in a very prosperous community and there were still kids in the park slugging back the cider (while their parents thought they were at youth club). It's nothing at all to do with the current economic conditions. We've been on a downward slide possibly since the start of cheap holidays on the Costa Brava ie a good 30 years or so. Maybe it started because unlike our continental cousins, we didn't grow up around alcohol or places you could call at for either a coffee or a drink. Instead the pub culture grew and grew and the family unit diminished. I used to work nights and it was amazing to see the age of the kids out and about at midnight. I think there are a lot of reasons why getting trashed has become synonymous with 'a good night out'. The pensions crisis isn't one of them.

First of all, I am a drinker.
Drinking alcohol is without doubt my greatest pleasure, even greater than music, I partake in it on a very frequent basis and I am very good at it.
There are very few, if any, parts of my social life that do not involve drinking.
But, and this is a massive thing, I am not a drunkard.
I am nearly 46 years old and have been drinking for a hell of a lot of years now but I can count on one hand the amount of times I have been drunk.
Had a good drink yes, but not drunk.

I do the vast majority of my drinking in pubs and similair establishments, I wouldn't thank you for a drink in my house.
I enjoy the social aspect of drinking in pubs and it is probably the single best thing about the British culture which is so often spoke about.

And therein lies the rub.

When I was younger I started drinking in pubs with people of all ages and I soon learnt to handle my drink and how to act responsibly and respectfully in different types of company.

But successive governments have sought to destroy the British pub culture.
It was the one place where people met and talked about every subject under the sun, including politics.
But if we have nowhere to meet then we can't talk to each other.

Pubs are shutting at alarming rates and as a result an essential part of who and what we are is disappearing.

Youngsters are encouraged to buy their drink from Supermakets etc at discounted rates and then proceed to drink to excess in someones home.
As a result they do not mix with people from other age groups, areas, backgrounds etc thus increasing their sense of alienation and polarisation.

Excessive alcohol abuse and alcoholism is not to be taken lightly but we would not be seeing the sharp increase we are and it's associated crime etc if TPTB had not started this social engineering exercise of changing British society by destroying it's pub culture.

reply to post by Freeborn


Very well said, at least another person is seeing that the governments policies are what is causing this so called 'problem'.

I am in the younger generation, early twenties and to be honest I go to more house parties than to clubs or bars and I dont mean everyone round to a council house flat job either.

Young people have been priced out of everything that is social and now all we can afford to do is sit back and enjoy a few drinks at a mates house instead of going to the bar and getting # for a few pints.

Priced out of -

Education
car insurance
petrol
Nights out clubbing
cars
mortgages

Even the job market is bleek.

Pubs may be having a hard time of it but they are hardly a scarcity. No what we are seeing - more so in city centre pubs - is the hybrid between pub and club. Sometimes there is an entrance fee. They stamp your hand when you go in and conversation is impossible above the ear splitting music. That's where some pubs have gone. Youngsters tend not to want the traditional pub.
I don't think the loutish drunken behaviour we see is anything to do with pubs closing.
Then there are the 'quiet alcoholics' and those just drink too much. Like a friend of mine who thinks nothing of having a bottle of wine every other night. Good job, good life. Nothing to do with economic woes!

reply to post by starchild10


The traditional British local is becoming a thing of the past and are shutting down at alarming rates.

I am a personal license holder and have ran my own pubs.
The odds are stacked against you and unless you can afford to have a free house, and if I could afford that I wouldn't bother with the hassle of running my own pub, or are managing for a large chain, with their horrible decor, false ambience and pre-prepared mass produced meals, then there is very little margin for profit.
Between the breweries, the pub co's and the various taxes and charges it leaves very little for the landlord I assure you.

Oh, and just to settle the arguement, 16 and 17 year old's can drink alcohol with a meal providing it is bought for them by an adult.
Once they have finished their meal they can not drink alcohol.
However, licensee's still have the right to refuse them if they wish to and do not have to give a reason or explanation.

reply to post by starchild10


Welcome to your opinion. Of course. And I wont be as rude to state its absolute rubbish, but as this is quite rightly placed within the 'Social' side of the forum, let's keep it there.

I'm not going to be kind with you, because ATS is about dispelling ignorance, and while yours persists its worthwhile pointing out some absolute truths.

Self destruction like that seen in excessive drinking is a symptom born from society. People drink excessively to escape a depression, whether real or perceived: it's an escapism. An escape from their own immediate reality. I'm not going to get into the complexities of human behaviour & psychology, but I have witnessed it first hand.

Exchanging with Mac back there reminded me of two Irish brothers I knew in my 20s. Both died prematurely. And while the younger survived bone cancer [only to die of a weak heart (so they said)], his elder brother drank himself to death because, as he saw it, his situation had become useless. He was a barrel chested, light of the party fella, who'd skipped across crocs on the zambezi but greyed rapidly and descended into the abyss only alcohol addiction can bring.

Last time I was over, I visited him. He was in his then dead grandfather's rented place, curtains drawn, sipping from a 3, or was it 5 L tub of cheap english cider. He was a fraction of the guy I'd known. I couldn't believe it. I loved this guy like a brother, but there he was, pissing his life away. Was it his fault? Was he really that weak? I dunno. He said he couldn't get 'off the ground' because he had no transport and couldn't then travel with his tools to any workplace. I said I'd pay for a driving licence & test. He cried then, & said no one had offered such help before. Time passed. I had a call from the driving school. He hadn't been for any lessons. I called round, and he was a dead man... spleen exploded, and he'd been left dead, in a lonely deadman's house for over a week. He wasn't a stupid englische chav, he just felt he was in a dead end.

When I visit my friends on the Res, they're often accused of 'pissing it away'... but when you have your entire world, your country, taken from you... and replaced by some atheist plastic excuse of an existence, the bottle is an easy excuse to let it all pass by.

People aren't really that strong. But when their world's are taken from them, and they see no future, drinking is easy.

You are, quite clearly one of the Legion of ignorant misinformants: there is no direction, or vision in this world. It really is up to the individual to be strong, personnally. No one, or thing, can help you.

There is a pub around the corner where I live called the pheonix.

Its very aptly named as it has been shut down soo many times, set on fire and rises out of its ashes every time.

The place is a craphole frequented by hardcore alcoholics who sit outside it at 8am drinking special brew.
Even at that hour there are plenty there getting smashed before it even opens.

Everyone drinks around here.

Its part of the DNA of Black Country folk who during the industrial revolution HAD to drink beer (even the kids) because the water was too contaminated to drink. That is why it kind of stuck here.
On a Sunday afternoon (even when I was a kids) moms used to be in the pub peeling spuds for Sunday dinner. Its just a big part of Black Country culture.



The loosers who drink at that pub are all on the dole.

I have no idea how they can afford it.

You see parents taking their kids to school that is opposite that pub, and having been to that school myself, I can testfy that those school leavers go from school to propping up the bar.

This is because of joblessness, boredom, then apathy.

People drink for different reasons, some to hide their depression, some for dependancy, and other for relaxation, enjoyment, and social reasons. Its not all black and white as some people have been saying, there are many different reasons for drinking, and this can be reflected in the many different drinks to drink.

I myself enjoy nothing more than at the end of the night, to sit down with a pint of ale/larger/stout and enjoy some comedy after work. Scotch if its been specially a hard day.

As for going out, i enjoy drinking for the relaxing feeling you have towards your fellow drinkers, where conversation flows nicely and new friends are met quite often, an most times in a friendly manner. In fact, the majority of my friends i met in a pub.

People do die from alcohol addiction, but its an addiction, addictions kill the majority of people, regardless on the chemical, it takes over the persons life. But because a few people get addicted to the substance, does that mean it should be made illegal for everyone else??? Absolutely not, how would people feel if caffeine was banned? Millions of people are addicted to that stuff.

Alcohol is there to enjoy, and enjoy responsibly. If you find it taking over your life, search for help, there is plenty of help out there for people with addictions, use it.