Panorama: The Drunks on our streets

[Phil Hinton]

Excellent Documentary on the state of our city and town centres regarding binge drinking and the lengths the drinks industry go to promote their products. It's encouraging that at last the real story of the struggling Police, magistrates and the greedy bar chains as well as the casualties of Alcohol related assaults etc, is now being aired in public.

[bigblueboy]

Must agree with Thx 1138 was a real wake up call regarding how the services are struggling with the explosion of a new bars & the after effects at closing time.

[Gorshin]

Binge drinkers are absolute scum

I am completely t-total now as I believe alcohol is so destructive for society and your body. It's just no good at all. Moderation is the key.

[The Dude]

I live in the centre of a town where there is quite literally nothing except pubs.. no cinema, no music clubs, not even a McDonalds....

But 57 pubs... and 8 coppers.

On a friday night the police don't even answer the phone.

[BlueOrange25]

Bit of a tough problem to tackle considering the proliferation of cheap alcohol and a willingness to get absolutley plastered. Only way is to massively increase the price of drinks but realistically that's not going to happen. Increasing policing seems to be a bit of a waste of time which makes it even sadder that it should be needed in the first place.

[CooperUK]

A huge levy imposed on bars/pubs to cover the cost of policing might make the drinks industry think twice about opening more places for the binge drinking chavs/neds to herd in.

I don't think changing the opening hours is going to help that much either, as in Britain there is not the same mentality concerning drinking. On the continent the attitude is more about being sociable and here it is more about getting p****d out of your brain.

The mentality of the drinkers needs to be changed, but how I don't know as I have no personal experience of what that mentality is like as I am a moderate drinking lightweight and abhor hangovers.

[graham.myers]

I ahbor hangovers - but that doesn't stop me from getting them lol. Increasing the pprice of drinks affects the moderate drinkers as well sa the neds tho, making even more of us drink at home so it wont stop them drinking just shift the problem to home parties.

no can't suggest an alternative - maybe the new id card can be swiped at bars and count the no. of units you consume and prohibit too many units to be bought, but thats too difficult to manage me thinks

[GrahamC]

A few bar Managers is court for selling more ale to already drunk patrons and heavyer fines for the drunks would be a start.

[mjn]

perhaps there should be a limit on the number of pubs per street/town?

[Nobber22]

Sorry lads, but it's a cultural thing. You Poms like a drink and then a good punch-up. You're not mature/sensible/chilled enough to enjoy alcohol in public like a responsible person who respects others.

I have around a dozen mates who I regularly go out drinking with (Aussies, Kiwis, S. Africans, a Welshman, a Scot and several Englishman) and the only ones who get into scuffles are the English lads.

Until you learn to handle your alcohol and your fists, then no amount of fines or laws are gonna protect a High Street on a Friday/Saturday night.

Sorry this my be seem to be a racist attack on all British men/women, but it's not! It's just my experience of drinking all over the world with people from many different nations.

[Mac Man]

I used to be seriously against our antiquated drinking laws, especially after spending holidays abroad where you would be out till 6am.

But after watching that programme I really don't see how allowing these 'superpubs' the opportunity to be 'open all hours' will reduce our antisocial drinking habits. You only have to see programmes about Ibiza and suchlike to see the Brits in this sort of environment. In my youth I've had my fair share of hangovers but today's culture seems way more extreme than 20 years ago.

There needs to be a sea change in cultural attitudes towards drink which, TBH, I can't see happening soon. This would need to be a 10 or 20 year campaign, similar to drink driving type campaigns to wean people off binge drinking. The cost to the NHS is simply staggering, never mind the long term effects of this abuse.

CL

[Gregorski]

Originally Posted by Nobber22

Sorry this my be seem to be a racist attack on all British men/women, but it's not! It's just my experience of drinking all over the world with people from many different nations.

I agree with you. I am British and I am embarrassed by the way British people behave in the pubs at the weekend, and on holiday.

My wife is Polish, and when we are abroad, if someone asks we always say we are Polish as it gets us far more respect everywhere we go, without exception. Just goes to show what other nations think of the British too. Its a serious embarrassment to the country and we need to do something about it.

I don't really know what though unfortunately. I've never seen any violence here on a Friday or Saturday night, although most Poles could easily drink the average Englishman under the table.

I think you are right that it is ingrained in our culture and probably will continue to be for a few years yet.

[Gregorski]

And before I get a load of abuse, its obviously not all British people, just a hardcore minority who can't behave.

[rhoamish]

Bedford has more than its fair share of problems on a Friday and Saturday night. There have been stabbings and fatalities over the last few months, and I treat it as a no-go area.

I've been to the bars in Bedford highstreet before, and they're horrible. Overcrowded, noisy and anonymous, they make you irritable before you even get in the door. Unfortunately, the breweries have closed a lot of pubs in local villages, so a lot of people converge on the town at the weekend. There's a definite 'tribal' feel to it, which I think is part of the problem.

I used to get absolutely wingbolted some nights in my village pub, but there was never any trouble: it was a cosy, friendly environment. And it wasn't run by the Why Don't You Gang: it had a proper landlord, and people respected him. And there was never a scrum to get in, or get served.

Milton Keynes has a fair bit of trouble at the weekends, but only in certain areas. If you go to a pub further from the centre, where the prices are a little higher to keep out the pikeys, then you can pretty much guarantee a fun, hassle-free evening.

[seany]

Well Manchester is a big city of course and you can find trouble if you look for it. Where i think its worse is the small towns like Oldham Bury Rochdale Ashton. It's like a pint and fight in those places, very clicky. Manchester has a large mix of students’ young professionals’ , visitors, and locals- a nice mix. We also have one of the best gay quarters in Europe that’s very cosmopolitan and one of the old bars Manto's used to be open till 6am. Never that much trouble as most of the pint and a fight (soft arses sober) are too close minded to go.