Something really amused me today: while reading the paper at lunchtime (the Daily Express, unfortunately- the epitomy of outraged ignorant middle-England journalism) there was a letter proposing that the solution to the ‘How do we cope with the binge drinking epidemic (!)’ problem was to increase the price of (for example) a pint of beer by £1 after 11pm. This would apparently encourage people to go home.

What utter shite.

Having been there myself, I’d say by the time closing time comes around and you’re half cut anyway, the very last thing on your mind is ‘Ooh this beer ia a bit expensive. I’m going home’, which is why nightclubs can (as long as the competition don’t undercut them) charge more or less what they like.

I think that

a) We don’t have a “binge drinking epidemic” all of a sudden. It’s what has always happened. I think that it’s part of being young to drink far too much.

b) If licencing hours are extended, it will, indeed, go mad- for a while. People (especially the subjects of yesterday’s post) will go on all night benders of epic proportions. But there’s only so much that one person can drink, and there’s already laws that prevent publicans from serving the collosally drunk. I can’t help but think that not chucking out hordes of pissed-up people all together at one time might be a good idea.