Were they drunk?
Alcohol Concern has managed to grab the news agenda on a particularly slow news day today by putting forward perhaps the single most ridiculous alcohol policy proposal I have ever heard: that the supply of alcohol to anyone under 15 should be banned by law. Yes, that means parents giving their 14 old kid a sip of wine at Christmas would be a punishable offence.
Where to begin? It staggers me that Alcohol Concern (which is actually the less bonkers of the two major alcohol charities in the country) could show such an utter lack of awareness regarding the fact, so blindingly obvious as to usually not need mentioning, that one of the central attractions of drink to young people is that it is a forbidden fruit. Plenty of guff will no doubt be circulated today about the fact the Brits have always drunk loads etc. etc., but the reality is that patterns of drinking among the young in Britain are ascribable to specific cultural causes, not least the banning of children from pubs under the 1908 Children's Act. That was a success for the temperance campaign at the time, and in a culture where most alcohol consumption took place outside the home, it reinforced the idea that access to pubs was a rite of passage. Earth to Alcohol Concern: if you tell a young person they can't do something (especially something which virtually every adult in the country does), they are no longer going to want to do it: they are really, really going to want to do it.
Alcohol Concern are right (as against the 'the Brits just like boozing, innit!' argument) that government policy shapes consumption. And the really sad thing is that the document they've just released includes some sensible ideas (not least a tax increase - relative affordability being the one thing that has consistently shaped levels of drinking over history). However, not only did they include the BAN KIDS FROM BOOZE! "idea" in their report they also chose to headline it in their press release. The result: howls of derision (rightly so) and the widespread perception that Alcohol Concern are a bunch of finger-wagging puritans who have no concept whatsoever of what it is like to be young. Nice work!
By the way, the more bonkers alcohol charity is the Institute of Alcohol Studies, whose wisdom is encapsulated in their wonderful definition of 'binge drinking' as 'drinking which results in the drinker feeling at least partially drunk'. No, really: it says it in here...
Where to begin? It staggers me that Alcohol Concern (which is actually the less bonkers of the two major alcohol charities in the country) could show such an utter lack of awareness regarding the fact, so blindingly obvious as to usually not need mentioning, that one of the central attractions of drink to young people is that it is a forbidden fruit. Plenty of guff will no doubt be circulated today about the fact the Brits have always drunk loads etc. etc., but the reality is that patterns of drinking among the young in Britain are ascribable to specific cultural causes, not least the banning of children from pubs under the 1908 Children's Act. That was a success for the temperance campaign at the time, and in a culture where most alcohol consumption took place outside the home, it reinforced the idea that access to pubs was a rite of passage. Earth to Alcohol Concern: if you tell a young person they can't do something (especially something which virtually every adult in the country does), they are no longer going to want to do it: they are really, really going to want to do it.
Alcohol Concern are right (as against the 'the Brits just like boozing, innit!' argument) that government policy shapes consumption. And the really sad thing is that the document they've just released includes some sensible ideas (not least a tax increase - relative affordability being the one thing that has consistently shaped levels of drinking over history). However, not only did they include the BAN KIDS FROM BOOZE! "idea" in their report they also chose to headline it in their press release. The result: howls of derision (rightly so) and the widespread perception that Alcohol Concern are a bunch of finger-wagging puritans who have no concept whatsoever of what it is like to be young. Nice work!
By the way, the more bonkers alcohol charity is the Institute of Alcohol Studies, whose wisdom is encapsulated in their wonderful definition of 'binge drinking' as 'drinking which results in the drinker feeling at least partially drunk'. No, really: it says it in here...
posted by James Nicholls at 2:20 pm
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