Like any grown adult I have lot of time a lot of time in the company of alcohol. I’ve grown accustomed to consuming copious amounts of it on a weekend in order to unwind from a long week at work. Its common place in the UK, go in any city center bar on a Friday night and you i will see plenty of people who have come out straight from work.
Most bars in Leeds (and most other places in the UK) tend to offer cheaper drinks during this time as an incentive to people. But thats not the only time of course, these happy hours go on at all hours of the day. Some places have offers on constantly to try and eek that extra few pence out of a punter. Not for much longer if this guy has his way though.
Sir Norman Bettison, Chef Constable of West Yorkshire Police. He wants to put an end to cut price drinks. He reckons that the offers that bars put on to attract customers are partly to blame for all the problems in Leeds City center on a Friday and Saturday night. The bars pull people in and encourage them to drink themselves into “oblivion’ as he puts it, then shoving them out into the streets at closing time.
Stopping the cut price drinks he thinks will stop this behavior. Yeah right! The only thing that this will achieve is that instead of cutting down on such behavior is to make the cost of a night out much higher for your average joe like you and me. No matter what the price people will still go for oblivion. With out the cut price drinks all that will happen is that something else will be seen as the cheap drink and people will just go mad on that instead. Or they will start before they leave home, when I was at university it was common practise to get a bottle of vodka or something similar and drink it before heading out so that you didn’t spend as much.
Just like when people say 24 drinking is to blame for the increase in trouble on the streets, they are aiming for the wrong target. The problem with alcohol in this country isn’t related to the price or the opening times. It’s related to the drinking culture in the UK as a whole, there are plenty of other countries where its cheap and easy to get hold of alcohol.
Much as I hate to admit it, look at our French neighbours. Most times of the day you can go and get a glass of wine or beer with out too much hassle. But they don’t have massive problems with drunken louts in the streets every night of the weekend. The reason for this? The drinking culture in France is must more relaxed than in England. In England you’re not allowed to drink alcohol until 18, its made a big deal that once you get there its your right, maybe even your duty to go out and get wasted. Yet in France, the whole thing is much more relaxed, they take away the “right of passage” associated with drinking, letting there children learn to drink in moderation, that way when they are old enough to drink alone they know about responsible drinking. I think this attitude is the one we need to adopt here, take away the coming of age aspect of being allowed to drink and you take away some of its attraction. Thats my two cents worth anyway
