So, one of these highly paid think tanks that now seem to run our lives has discovered that young people are not getting the message about safe drinking and that going out to get drunk is the object of the exercise. Two points strike me about this. Presumably. most of the people who inhabit these think tanks went to universities, places where getting trollied on a regular basis is a large part of the university experience. Therefore, unless they were part of some uni teetotelers club, the likes of which I never came across they could have worked that one out before they started.
The second point is that any student of social history could have told you that getting hammered has been a traditional pastime in the British Isles, as elsewhere in Northern Europe, since prehistory.Most of the o;d norse myths involve warriors getting wrecked at some point and you only have to study the eighteenth century and see the cartoons of Hogarth to see what the London of that period was like. It was largely to control the drinking habits of the working class that licensing laws were introduced in the first place to ensure that they continued to produce the maximum amount of surplos value needed to finance industrial capitalism in its expansionary phase. Perhaps more history being taught, rather then less might help put things in more perspective.
The real problem now is the easy availability of the demon drink in supermarkets and corner shops, for as any bloke on the barstool can tell you the youth dont, on the whole get wellied in the pub, often they are slaughtered by the time they get there. Will this, or any other government for that matter, going to take on the ASDA's and Tesco's, and the rest of the assorted lobbies that support the drinks industry ?. I somehow doubt it and I suspect that the state will continue to attempt to control binge drinking amongst the youth by increasing duties that will hit the ordinary chap in the corner with his pint as hard as the kid puking up in the phone box after a night on the Apple Sours.
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It wouldn't solve the problem of kids getting legless on the rec with supermarket cider, but I've thought for some time that they could control the problem in towns and city centres by imposing local licensing age restrictions. Instead of playing around with the hours that pubs and bars can stay open, give the local licensing magistrates the power to set their own minimum drinking age depending on local circumstances. It is mostly teenagers and twenty-somethings who cause all the trouble in town centres on Friday and Saturday nights so why not give the magistrates the powers to impose minimum drinking ages of 25 or even 30 if need be in specific locations. The minimum age could be adjusted up or down in the light of experience. The same minimum age would apply locally to shops and off-licenses. That way there would be no need to hit responsible drinkers in the pocket or impose draconian laws anywhere they were not needed. Of course, this may just cause the trouble-makers to move elsewhere, but it's got to be better than the no-go areas which British towns and cities have become at weekends.
What about getting them more involved with local activities and show praise for the good that comes from it. I dont see many activities or social places for teenagers in towns or villages that doesnt cost the earth to do. I see things for younger people but for 14+ they have been forgotten about everywhere. Maybe a charity fundraiser for starters.
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