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On the Binge of Europe
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November 24th, 2009CommentA few chaps from my office have just got back from a 3 day trip to Amsterdam. While they were there they had the option of partaking in a number of activities that it would not be socially accceptable for them to do at home in the UK (and at this stage I should point out that I’m not saying that any of them necessarily did so). In a way this is very close to the attitude that has developed in this country to binge drinking, with Saturday nights (or equivalent) written off and designated as times, like weekends in Amsterdam, when one can behave however they want without fear of repercussion.
I imagine that very little thought is given by touring Brits to the repurcussions of their actions in Amstersdam yet the legality of these actions does not necessarily mean that they are not without victims. There will be very few young girls, in Holland or any country, growing up with the aspiration of becoming a prostitute. Rather they are victims of circumstance. Similarly a great number of people every weekend in the UK ‘binge drink’ with very little regard for themselves or the people they come into contact with. The vast majority of these events go unreported.
Every now and then we hear of something so extreme as that the perpetrator is held to account. A recent example is the Hallam student who woke up to find that he had urinated on a War Memorial. As a member of Hull University Hockey Club I could have been found twice a week for three years waking up with very little knowledge of how I’d got to where I was and frankly with only good luck and good friends away from probably being in court myself. I’m sure many can say the same. I believe it’s customary for people looking back on such times to say that they wouldn’t change a thing but I can assure you that there is plenty I would change and, with honest eyes, most people would admit to wishing they had ‘just had one less’ on at least one occassion.
How is this little essay (and it is an essay!) related to Real Ales Reviews? Well yesterday I read the following article in the Metro…
Binge Drinking Survey Published in the Metro 23 Nov 2009
Under a very familiar looking headline the British obsession with binge drinking is once again ‘evidenced’. I am going to highlight 12 words from the article that purely astounded me. ‘There is some good news. One in five Britons claims to be teetotal’. What an arrogant turn of phrase from the author Miles Erwin to suggest that the 80% of the nation who chose to have a drink are ‘bad news’. I agree wholeheartedly that the binge drinking culture in the UK is not to my taste. but is this a problem casued by the entire 80% of people who are not teetotal? Of course not.
A great number of people in the UK drink regularly and do not create victims because of the manner in which they consume their alcohol. We recently attended the Saltaire Beer festival where somewhere near to 100 people exceeded their weekly recommended allowance of alcohol units and had a bloody good time without (to my knowledge) any detrimental effect to anyone at the festival or any nearby residents. Similarly my parents regularly get together with their friends and exceed the unit allowance (3-4 per day for a male, for context 1 pint of Old Speckled Hen, 4.5% is just over 2.5 units) without any anti-social behavior that I know of.
Alcoholism is a serious issue and I would not for a second be trying to imply that it is not (and to show that we take the health issues that can relate to drinking alcohol seriously we will be adding the Drink Aware website to out list of links). But it is crazy to consider that drinking four pints on a Friday night should not be considered to be a binge.
Is binge drinking a serious issue? Yes. Should it be used to alienate the millions of social, responsible drinkers in the UK? No.
So what solution would I propose?
- Firstly the voices of these responsible drinkers (and rational people) needs to be heard, even if it seems that none of the people who make such decisions are listening – I am sure that the majority who do not make the decisions continue to hear these voices and argee with what is being said. I recently read a brilliant article from The Lighter Side of Beer regarding the beneficial factors of moderate beer consumption, a side of the argument that we do not get to hear all that often.
- Secondly the authorities must take decisive action against people who use alcohol, use the time when it is ‘accepted’ to be out of control through drinking alcohol, as an excuse to act inappropriately. Whilst punishment is not always the solution I believe that the authorites have lost sight of the fact that it sometimes is. I am not a policy maker and am not going to propose changes, I just recognise that the continued existence of alcohol related anti social behavoir means that current policy is not working.
The threshold for what is considered to be binge drinking is set too low in my opinion (less than two pints of a moderate strength real ale). People who drink 4-8 pints on a Saturday (which I and nearly everyone I know does) are being tarred with a brush that draws images of city centre brawls, upturned wheelie bins and vomit strewn pavements. This is plainly not fair. For me binge drinking and anti-social behavoir, two undoubtedly serious issues facing the nation, need to be seperated. The boundaries for binge drinking should be redrawn with the people who need held being treated. People who engage in anti-social behavoir would then not be able to hide behind the excuse of a binge drinking culture and could be punished appropriately.
Only then will the responsible majority stop being The Scapegoat for the inability of the authorities to address the social problems currently being faced by the nation.
Tags: binge drinking
8 responses to “On the Binge of Europe” 
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Did you mean to write “But it is crazy to consider that drinking four pints on a Friday night should not be considered to be a binge.” ?
If so, I have to disagree. A binge is when you don’t go to bed, or you do go to bed but then get up and start drinking again. Or when you’re in the pub at 11am three days in a row (and stay there all day).
The more I learn about alcohol the more I find drunkenness disgusting. You’re quite right, there are too many people just using alcohol as a drug and it is a problem.
But I am wary of getting into bed with the likes of drinkaware. I don’t think telling people to drink spirits instead of beer, as that site does, is good advice. Do we need an independent campaign by responsible drinkers against drunkenness?
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Alan Walsh November 25th, 2009 at 22:18
I swear I read this three times and didn’t spot that typo!!! The sentence was meant to read in agreement with you. I think official recommendations and guidelines are set unrealistically (and in my opinion – although I have no medical grounding – unnecessarily) low. Ironically I think that this can actually prevent people who have a genuine need of help to slip under the radar.
I too am cautious about taking on the message of drink aware. I did find their site informative factually though, if not agreeing with the overring message.
I like your phrase distinguishing between drinking and drunkeness.
A campaign is certainly long overdue but I fear that we would be preaching to the choir with any publicity we could generate on here.
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The other big part of the problem is supermarkets selling booze as a loss leader, encouraging people to drink (in large amounts) at home. A good pub or bar can sell beer in a more socialable environment and a good landlord/publican/manager will tell someone when they’ve had enough.
What we need is stricter rules on supermarkets (who also don’t have to deal with the results of their cheap booze, unlike pubs) and good publicans who keep an eye on their drinkers and have the balls to stop service when someone has had too much.
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Tom – I agree entirely with this sentiment. In my local, the landlord is always fully aware of the people in his pub, and has been known to take action where necessary.
The fact is that the tax and consumer laws in this country encourage individuals to buy multipacks of beer from supermarkets (who, as you say are currently allowed to do this as a loss leader – although there were rumbles of rules being changed to tackle this a while ago) as opposed to drinking in a social environment such as a pub, where drinking can be managed.
Alcohol duties have undoubtedly affected the pub trade during the recession as people look to cut costs – it is often not feasible for people to go to pubs as regularly as they used to. It would be nice to see some common sense in this matter, but unfortunately it seems to be a subject matter entirely devoid of logical thinking.
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Indeed. Without wanting to plug my own wares, there will be a fairly extensive article in the Leeds Guide on this very subject sometime around Christmas or in the new year. I spent an evening in Otley with publicans, CAMRA and MP Greg Mulholland discussing the pub trade in some detail. Hopefully Pete Brown will be chipping in too. It will be good. I’ll link to it on my blog when it’s up online.
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It is nice to read a moderate blog or article on beer for once. I am impressed with the way you potray it as it is. Perhaps some people might disagree with you about what the actual quantity of alcohol a day should be for a rda, but I think few would disagree with the sentiments of this article. cheers!
Steve
http://stevehynd.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/the-dark-side-of-real-ale/
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I keep reading someone’s forum signature, it reads something like this:
“Good people drink Good Beer, and Bad people drink Bad beer”…
Never a truer word said, its a lack of education of the parents of some of the last generation who find out that by playing their cards right they don’t have to work as the government will pay for them to do nothing.In short, Chavs Breed Chavs who teach excessive drinking.
The country needs to change to break the cycle.
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Here is my essay!
In my real life job Im a nurse and I work in an A&E observations area. I quite often have do deal with the problems that alcohol creates.
I ‘binge’ drink, myself probably to a lesser extent to what I used to as a student but I still drink so I cant be too judgemental.
I believe I am a sensible drunk… I dont fight, or cause problems, or get into trouble or get myself into hospital. I believe that the vast majority of people are like this.
Its always the small majority that spoil it for the rest, and the hospital service really is put under an unnecessary level of strain due to people consuming excessive levels alcohol.
I really think a minimum price per unit will make a big difference, as it wouldn’t change the price of a pub pint but will help to reduce the consumption of ‘problem’ drinkers. I remember as a student drinking by price and not by quality, so this scheme would have without a doubt reduce my intake (or possibly just increased my debt!)
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The author
Name: Alan
Barm November 25th, 2009 at 18:20