I heard the guy who runs Wetherspoons being interviewed on Radio 4 this morning. He was great to listen to, the voice just conjured up an ageing hippie. But the point he was making was that the underage drinking laws are being taken too seriously, it would be better to turn a blind eye.
It seems a difficult area. What age should we taste alcohol, what age can we start drinking. I admit to belonging to the camp that believes if you make something illegal then you also make it attractive. Tell a child that they can't drink then they will want to do so. From an early age let them try it then they will decide that there is nothing so "big" about it and it loses attraction.
But I thought about when I first had a drink. I can remember breaking out from school (boarding house). Well, I was smart, I didn't need to break out. I had the masters trust so I could walk out the front door. And walk back in that way as well as long as I wasn't spotted. But I am ashamed to say that for some reason "Pernod and black" seems to stick in the mind. I have a horrid feeling that I used to drink those.
1 comment:
It would work for Wetherspoons if a blind eye was turned to underage drinking, wouldn't it? But I agree that it is safer for them to drink in a pub than out on the streets,
Stopping illegal sales of alcohol to children has to be the main approach, imo. It's pretty difficult as apparently shop-keepers know the kids and sell to them out of the back door. The police are working at taking alcohol off them when they see them with it.
Giving children things to do other than drinking might also work. Except that they do seem to like drinking cheap cider on street corners more than going to a youth club...
And it's not just under-age drinking that's the problem. One of the main images of drinking portrayed in the media is pissed 20-somethings fighting and falling over in the gutter. We need a change in drinking culture but I don't know how to achieve that.
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