Following the “success” of the implementation of the smoking ban in the UK, the Government has now shifted its focus to the next vice du jour: alcohol. It was only a matter of time.
In a determined move to nanny the state ever more, Home Secretary Alan Johnson today announced that drinks promotions will be banned by his Government in April. Presuming they’re in power, of course.
“Alcohol-related crime costs the UK billions of pounds every year and while the vast majority of retailers are responsible, a minority continue to run irresponsible promotions which fuel the excessive drinking that leads to alcohol-related crime and disorder”
So we need a blanket ban applied to all licensed premises because of this minority, then Johnno? Wouldn’t be the first time Labour punished the majority because of the minority.
“These practices have a real impact on society, not to mention the lives of those who just want to enjoy a good night out.”
Would that be the majority of people that want a good night out and go to the majority of bars/clubs/supermarkets to buy drinks? For fuck’s sake Alan.
In a bizarre U-turn, Gordon Brown agrees;
“we will give local authorities the power to ban 24-hour drinking throughout a community”
The Conservatives want to play this game too and have tossed their two penneth into the ring. In fact, resident slap-head and shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling went one step further in pledging to allow councils power to apply arbitrary taxes on drink sold after a certain time. Call yourself a fucking Conservative you nannying twat. What next, a rule saying you can’t drink alcohol between certain hours?
Dave Daly will be jumping for joy at this news as it takes one step closer to his holy grail of pub profits: the minimum price for alcohol. But as we saw in the days of Al Capone, once you start making alcohol prohibitively expensive people simply start making their own which is usually a lot stronger than alcohol purchased in shops. Drive alcohol into the black market and I think it’s fair to say the Government and police will have a far more serious problem with gang culture than they do with easily controllable drunks on a weekend.
It won’t go that far, though. I’m sure Sir Terry Leahy is sat in his boardroom at Tesco HQ pissing himself laughing at this latest bout of sparring between the leading mainstream parties, because the result of destroying bars and clubs with knee-jerk tax hikes and drinking bans implemented by idiots like Peter Callow mean people will be more likely to purchase booze in the supermarket and stay at home. That’s a sure fire way to create an antisocial society.
Who hasn’t taken advantage of a happy hour or two-for-one promotion? I know I have, and if I were on a night out and saw a promotion I’d probably go and enjoy it. But does that mean we all go round falling over in the street, urinating, attacking police officers and committing vandalism? Well, no.
Is that really the issue they’re trying to address, though? If it is, then it’s easily solved by imposing draconian solutions upon landlords that continue to serve drunk people. How about permanent license revocation? It’s not a new law but it’s rarely enforced: it seems the authorities are more interested in sending teenagers into supermarkets.
Or is it that the Government Knows Best™ and is doing this because it deems that we’re all incapable of deciding for ourselves whether we want to put our bodies through the impact of 12 pints of Stella?
Chris McSlaphead is correct in that Labour has created a binge drinking culture; he blames the 24 hour licensing laws but I disagree. The problem is people, not drinks promotions or licensing hours.
Does Grayling really think that because pubs open for another hour on quiz night we’re showered in an unending oblivion of violence? Is he suggesting that the majority of antisocial behaviour due to drinking occurs because someone bought a drink outside what Dave Daly deems to be traditional drinking hours? Does he not realise that almost nowhere has a 24 hour alcohol license because it’s simply not worth it?
Regardless of the time at which a drink is bought, excess alcohol makes bad people do bad things. It does not make everyone do bad things.
City professionals often go on drinks benders that dwarf those partaken by visitors to Blackpool on a Saturday night, but how many of them are out there committing offences afterwards?
Labour are determined to blame the antisocial society that they have parented on drinks promotions but it’s all down to their neglectful policy. Labour created the ASBO culture by neglecting schools and making it impossible to meaningfully discipline a child: the spawn of Labour’s education system is the origin of the increase in antisocial behaviour in the UK.
They pulverised the education system into a target-driven publicity vehicle at the expense of actual education. People are leaving schools with very little social responsibility, few aspirations and few qualifications of any value.
Labour’s failures have created financial pressure upon a lot of people, too. Under Labour, the cost of basic supplies has skyrocketed. People have lost their investments in places like Bradford and Bingley after Labour did a Railtrack and relieved it of its assets. People have lost their life savings as stock markets collapsed. People have lost their homes. There are about a million more people unemployed since Labour came to power. And now people are signed up to an eternity of tax hikes due to Gordon Brown.
Bloody hell, after all that, I fancy a drink.
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Bra-fucking-vo!
Someone’s been reading Devil’s Kitchen of late, haven’t they?
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“Any similarities are purely coincidental”
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Philtheone# I admire your efforts to remain neutral however your final highly biased paragraphs let you down badly. Was it Labours fault that the American market imploded and caused the stock market crash? Was it Labours fault that the Tory party signed away our legislative rights to the EU and the Echr? The increase in anti-social behavior can be directly attributed to human rights and action groups like Liberty
The joy of responding to your post is that a full year has passed and the Tory party are in power in the last month unemployment figures rose 35,000 and we have vat rises, fear about rising inflation and interest rates with many homes in negative equity,tax increases and tuition fees rises. Im sure this is all Labours fault but dont the comparisons of both parties sound very similar
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Phil doesn’t try to remain neutral he just puts forward his views and then lets people debate and disagree with them.
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Hi Cardy, just to echo what interested has said – I’m a Conservative at heart and as such my views will lean on that side of most arguments. Remember, this is just a blog site so most posts will be just my own opinions (or those of the one or two guest authors that post here), though I do try to explore opposing or different arguments as well.
I’m not a member of any political party and most local Conservatives absolutely despise me and my website.
I think it would be fair to say that I am a true Conservative rather than this neo-socialist abomination we have running Blackpool at the moment, though I am not driven by any ideology other than one that seeks to improve.
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If you like DK, you might also enjoy Mr. Eugenides – http://mreugenides.blogspot.com/
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I enjoyed that cougars video, cracked up laughing!
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The suggestions are complete crap. I rarely drink (and never get drunk) and even I’ve taken advantage of two for one drinks at happy hour (shared with a friend or family).
The licensing hours need cutting back. This will stop drunks roaming the streets in the early hours waking everyone up. It won’t for one minute stop people getting drunk though.
If you look at the countries with the worst drink problems they’re always ones which have a depressed resident population – Russia and Poland being prime examples. The UK’s obviously in there because we’re becoming a poor nation – maybe not on paper with our wage levels but when you take living costs off, we’re probably about level with these countries. What would drive drinking down most in my personal opinion, is to have more entertainment at affordable price levels, more “socialising without drinkin”g opportunities of any kind so you can have a good night out without being in a pub or club. Unless you’re into floodlit sports or staying at home as a couch potato, what is there to do?
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To be honest I’ve never really been bothered by noisy drunks roaming the streets, but I accept it does happen. It’s probably less of an evil than we’re led to believe, though.
You’re right about the UK having a depressed population, but should that perhaps be oppressed? After all, the Government seems intent on living our lives for us and the mainstream are seemingly doing battle on who can be the biggest nanny!
In answer to the last question, well, I’m going to the cinema later and I wont be drinking so that’s one thing! Depends on your definition of affordable I suppose.
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I think the simplest answer is to restrict the sale of alcohol from supermarkets. I think there should be much tougher tests in order to obtain a license to sell alcohol and anyone selling it should have a licence. The minimum age should also raised to 21. Draconion measures maybe, but there needs to be some responsibility by those selling alcohol. At the moment, pub landlords are the ones who control (in most cases!) the sale of alcohol on their premises, but a lot of the alcohol related problems are not caused by pub customers.
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I don’t think raising the age limit will have any effect at all because there will still be people old enough to buy alcohol for younger people.
After all, the age limit is 18 now but does that mean that kids as young as 10 are not drinking alcohol? Apparently not.
Is under age drinking the problem they’re trying to address, though? Looking at the comments from the prime minister, home secretary and shadow home secretary it appears that it’s just drink fuelled violence, be it vandalism or spouse beating.
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There is a simple solution make all alcohol sales be paid for by credit card. You cannot get one until your 18 and credit checks are done prior to getting one. If a parent is stupid enough to give their pin number to their child prosecute them for aiding and abetting the sale of alcohol to a minor. The only down side is that many serial drinkers cannot get a credit card. Perhaps the Government could put their benefit payments onto a special “credit card” to enable them to get their super strength beverages.
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They way things are going,we will need to have a licence to PURCHASE alcohol, shit, shouldnt have said that, thats another money spinner!
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Jesus Christ DK rants as bad as me!
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In the seventies in Fleetwood the fine was £25 for being drunk and disordely in the street. Plus your name and maybe picture was in the paper. This was quite effective, now of course the fine would need to be £250 and video of your dunken behavour on Youtube, but it may be worth a try.
Nobody minds the drinking it is the bad behavour that should be stopped, set up stocks in the street outside the bars if the cells are full.
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[...] spoke the other day about the mainstream reforms in relation to purchasing alcohol: the extra taxes on [...]
REOPENING THE DEBATE
AS IN GASJET
Market Street was revealed as being the worst in Blackpool for violent crime after street-by-street figures were published yesterday on interactive crime maps by the Home Office.
Coun Henry Mitchell, chairman of Blackpool Council Licensing Committee, said he was concerned by the figures.
He added: “We’re one of the worst in the North West, I’m very concerned. It’s a dreadful situation, it’s not good for the town.
“I’m not blaming the pubs, they have got their work cut out. The Government needs to clamp down on the supermarkets and cheap booze.
“People get cheap booze, get tanked up and then go out in town. They’re beyond reason.”
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I AM MORE CONCERNED THAT THE LICENSING COMMITEE GRANT CONTINUATION OF LICENSES WITH IN CORRECT PAPERWORK IN PLACE.
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Supermakets that buy in such bulk sell booze and promotions at ridiculous give away prices. Getting tanked up at home is a big thing these days and the pubs, bars and clubs do get the brunt of it and often have to purchase alcohol from breweries at much higher prices than the likes of Asda, Tesco’s and so forth. Personal responsibly and a balance of common sense from bar owners and landlords should help reduce the binge culture and under-age drinking . It goes on in many town centres all over the UK and I feel it is unfair to label Blackpool as one of the worst. The Council, licensing Police and the registered door staff work very hard to reduce town centre boisterousness. I agree with Henry Mitchell the Government need to clamp down on the big supermarket chains and their irresponsible tempting offers. Their promotions are slowly but surely damaging the licence pub trade further and encouraging younger people to go ‘bananas’
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I think the licensing trade has to take it’s share of the blame though. They offered drinking promotions. They increased the size of the glasses. They switched to drinks with higher % alcohol content. They turned up the music so people no longer talk as much and they removed seats – again to increase drinking and profit margins.
Going out is now all about going out, getting drunk and copping off. In my childhood it was about going out drinking until you were very merry but convinced that a few mints and a bit of determination would make mum & dad think you hadn’t touched a drop and flirting and snogging – far more innocent (but then we were surrounded by ads from the government with tombstones on them telling us if you had sex you’d die) (of course if your parents didn’t kill you first). Now you have use a condom and you’re fine. Take drugs and this one will do this, that one that… – not they’re mixed with rubbish, you never know what you are getting and you could die. And no- your parents can’t punish you except by asking you to go to your room and hope you stay there and so on. And I know the people doing this aren’t all school age anymore but this is the age that’s driving the whole bad attitude to having to be tanked up to have any fun (presumably because they have no personality or imagination to have fun without).
Having said that supermarkets didn’t used to have licences at all – I remember that and I’m only 40. And when they got them you certainly couldn’t buy from them 24 hours a day or even during all their opening hours. And the only thing that was really cheap and booze was cider (and that makes you throw up before you get really drunk anyway).
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Nobody has actually proven that violence and antisocial behaviour of drunks is caused by booze purchased from a supermarket. They are just an easy target for people like Dave Daly, who wants people to spend more in his own premises, just like you do. He kicks off about all competition for his bar, including the Wetherspoons on the promenade. Apparently they are too cheap, but I’ve never felt threatened in there.
I’ve got to say, though, that if this link between supermarket alcohol and violence is in fact made (using, yes, real facts not assumed ones put out there by local bar owners), locating a supermarket in the Talbot Gateway seems like a remarkably stupid idea. I wonder whether Dave Daly has thought about that?
Regarding the price Tesco etc pay, it’s obvious they would get a better deal than anyone else through economies of scale, but also I was under the impression that they were not making much/any profit on the booze they sold. On the other hand if I walk into a bar and pay £2.50 for a pint, the bar is making about 600% profit before overheads. There’s a moral to that story somewhere.
The 24 hours a day thing is also jumped on a lot, as if to suggest that Tesco is full of drunks in the middle of the night getting their ‘fix’. Not true. I have been in that big Tesco at Mereside in the middle of the night several times and it’s empty bar a few zombified staff, and no I wasn’t buying booze!
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Phil a pint of the cheapest draught beer I am told works out costing a bar approx a £1.00 per pint, some quite a bit more depending on brand, you sell it at £2.50 leaves you £1.50 profit, when you take bar staff wages into account, door staff, PRS, PLB, business rates, rent for the property whether you lease it or own outright, licence fees and utility bills there is very little profit left if any.
This is why a lot of brewery’s are closing down pubs and selling them off for other uses, it is sometimes cheaper to close a bar down altogether rather than remain open and running at a loss. The smoking ban did not help, neither did the shifting of licensing hours as people tend to come into town later now meaning that you have to stay open longer resulting in a larger wage bill for not much difference in takings. Lets not forget that the night time economy of Blackpool is suffering badly due to the recession, you only have to go into town mid week to see how quite the bars and restaurants are.
I do think that Bar managers have a difficult task in any town to make their bars profitable and are under continuous pressure from the brewery’s to increase profits. As for closing a bar down immediately, the police have the power to do this if they suspect a public disorder offence is going to be committed and indeed did do when they shut Brannigans and the rest of the bars in Market St when the Man united fans turned up for the game against Blackpool before xmas that was postponed.
Brannigans had a lot of supporters in there causing trouble, so they closed it down so that they could clear them out, they also closed NTK and Yates as a precaution whilst they cleared these fans away. Once the trouble makers had gone then they allowed the bars to reopen, no doubt Brannigans would be reported to appear before the licensing committee for a review of its licence had it not gone into administration.
Once the licensing committee make a order to suspend a licence or introduce more conditions on a premises licence then you have 28 days to appeal this decision to a magistrates court, some bars do play this system as once you appeal you are allowed to remain open until the appeal is held, then you may choose to drop the appeal once you have hit a quite spell rather than go to the expense of a appeal, and serve your sentence.
There is nothing Blackpool council can do about this as it is the law of the land, and god help us if the appeals system was ever dropped as we have seen many miscarriages of justice.
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Gone are the days of making 600% profit in a pint of draught beer! I know you mentioned before overheads, nevertheless the license trade, whether it be social clubs, traditional pubs, music bars or night clubs are having a very tough time. Thats why I would like to encourage espresso coffee, WIFI etc. And those venues who have the capacity to do quality light snacks should do so! Brewery’s did have it too good for too long and damaged the industry by calculating rents by the size of the venue by square footage. The smaller brewery’s sold out to big conglomerate companies mainly run by ruthless corporate accountants who perhaps have never pulled a pint in their lives. Come to think of it neither have I, know doubt will do soon!
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Why should I, a responsible adult and social drinker be unable to take advantage of cheaper prices because some half-wits cannot be trusted to drink within their capacity. Being drunk is the excuse given all too often for criminal and anti-social offences. Blaming supermarkets is even more stupid. Zero tolerance on drink related crime might seem draconian but let us no longer accept being drunk as an excuse for bad behaviour. Treat these offences and offenders with the contempt they deserve. As a community insist that local Police deal with drink related issues effectively and spontaneously. If that means half the cops out in Talbot Sq/Queens Sq on a Saturday night locking up the offenders and people pissing in doorways – so be it. It would not take long for the message to get through. Even consider empowering the Community Wardens to deal with drunks.
Trying to fix artificially high drink prices only penalises the sensible majority and Henry Mitchell who does not have an original thought in his head (nay probably any thought) is merely jumping on the bandwagon because he feels that he has to say something.
When Che bar fell foul of the licensing law and was ordered to close because of the number of drink related woundings there, what did the powers that be do? Allow them to open over the lucrative Christmas period and then permit them to choose to close for the first 2 weeks of January when there is no-one about anyway. The important fact here is that the Club owners chose when they were closing. Had they seriously wanted to send out a message to the pub trade surely they would have enforced the closure when it was going to hurt. ie Christmas
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