IT’S THE scourge of our society, the pulsating disease rampaging through the streets of our deprived seaside town, blanketing well-to-do families and mutating their offspring into wild, enraged animals that will start a fight with anyone or anything using whatever means necessary and no matter the odds. Like a malignant tumour, the spectre of alcohol is growing in its toxicity, haunting the minds of the youth of the nation where access to alcohol is easier than ever – and cheaper.
Or is it? It seems former reflexologist Cllr Susan Fowler thinks so, and she should know, since she’s on some sort of board of people that think they know stuff about binge drinking and the price of booze.
Whilst the latest JD Wetherspoon pub is under construction on Market Street and the new Revolution vodka bar (which, incidentally, is likely to offer cheap two-for-one cocktails like its other bars do) is being fitted out just a few metres down the road, Cllr Mrs Fowler has come up with an amazing, innovative way of reducing the levels of binge drinking in Blackpool. No, no, dear readers, she’s not going to stop the opening of more and more bars as the Conservatives promised in their 2007 manifesto. Don’t be silly. No, Mrs Fowler has instead decided to follow the course her Great Leader took when the massive, front-loaded cut to the council settlement was announced by the government.
Susan Fowler’s protest against the perceived drinking culture is to send a letter to an MP. Emmeline Pankhurst she is not.
That’s right though, folks, as the ink falls on to that crisp town hall emblazoned papyrus to be folded by hand and delivered at taxpayers expense, the Conservatives are approving more and more drinking establishments in Blackpool with the total approaching an almost unbelievable two thousand bars, though as ever with the pointless Gasjet this is a totally misleading figure designed to scare people into believing the problem is bigger than it is. Why? Well, think how many guesthouses and B&B’s there are in Blackpool. Most of them have bars.
But guess what, this figure is taken at face value by those people like Susan Fowler who are appointed and paid to nanny us and tell us that we’re all living unhealthy lifestyles, just like Labour did. Does she not realise that this kind of crap is straight out of Lewis Carroll’s greatest unpublished work, Susan In Wonderland, where everyone’s a mixed race, public sector working Muslim homosexual hermaphrodite scaffolder that guzzles the latest and greatest PC nanny state garbage being defecated out of Whitehall?
Punch drunk
I should add that Cllr Mrs Fowler’s hard-hitting letter was backed by the head of medicine at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. Yes, a doctor, who might well be an expert on the outcomes of alcohol abuse, but looking at the amount of money he’s on, his immense pension pot and unbeatable job security, he probably isn’t an expert on the socio-economic factors which drive people to glugging huge bottles of super strength booze.
The only reason most of us know about binge drinking is because people like Susan Fowler in conjunction with barrel-scraping media outlets keep telling us that it exists. What is a binge drinker though? Someone who drinks a certain quantity of booze in a certain time. According to the NHS, I am a binge drinker, because at the weekend I might have a few beverages that total more units than the artificially set recommended amount. I bet most councillors are the same. I bet most NHS staff are the same. The Gasjet reckons 28% of Blackpool residents are alcohol abusers and binge drinkers. Could it be the case that the 28% are those that actually have jobs and can afford to?
Whinge drinking
Anyway, what did Cllr Mrs Fowler’s conundrum spell out to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley? Dead simple, Cllr Mrs Fowler predictably wants to increase the price of booze, and according to the Gasjet, a bunch of boffins in several North West authorities have been flexing their cerebra for over a year to come up with this stellar conclusion. The devil is in the detail, though, because unlike the government who want to push through a pretty pointless 21p minimum price per unit of booze, Susan Fowler wants to increase this control mechanism to 50p.
Under the current government proposals a box of fifteen 440ml cans of Carling with 1.8 units per can could be sold at a minimum of £5.67. As we know, nowhere sells it that cheap, so prices of beer in supermarkets would remain very, shall we say, consumer friendly. When the cheap deals come around, they usually amount to boxes of 15 cans of Carling, Strongbow, Boddingtons, John Smiths, and numerous other drinks for £8, or three boxes for £20 (£6.66 per box).
This still wouldn’t come close to the government-imposed price limit, which is good. However it would pump the price of a 3 litre bottle of extra-strong Frosty Jack cider (22.5 units) up from a couple of quid to £4.75: probably not going to stop chavs buying it and binge drinking. Under Susan Fowler’s proposition, though, this cider would cost £11.25 – considerably more.
It therefore seems like a logical progression to start artificially inflating the price of booze so that little Sophie Websters can’t afford to get obliterated on ci-dah and take a leap of faith from a church roof – but what about the overwhelming majority of people that do not drink alcohol to excess? As always, we’re all going to have to pay more for the privilege, just so that we save the minority that harm themselves via abuse of alcohol.
Based on the crates of fifteen 440ml cans of lager, cider or bitter for £8 that most supermarkets do whenever there’s a reason to drink, Susan Fowler’s proposals will increase the price of a can of bog standard lager by 68%. Sixty eight percent.
Off her trolley
The big downside of minimum pricing relies on the financial means of the customer. Consider the following;
- A price of £11.25 might put kids off buying a 3 litre bottle of cider, but what’s stopping them buying a 2 litre one?
- A professional with a stressful job that wants to get annihilated isn’t going to be deterred by the £11.25 price tag of a 3 litre bottle of cider, because they want to get leathered and to take it out of their means would take it out of the means of almost everyone, costing the government a fortune in tax and pissing off everyone else.
- Pushing the price of 15 lagers up to over £13 isn’t going to put a gang of lads off buying a few of them and getting tanked up before they go out because it’s still far cheaper than buying pints of beer in any pub in Britain.
- What if one is an alcohol addict? How do you afford to get your fix? The same way hard drug addicts do, perhaps.
Once minimum pricing starts on one consumer item, it will start appearing on other things that the government deems are too unhealthy for us, like crisps, chocolate, fast food, pub and restaurant meals, soft drinks, and so on. We all know these things are unhealthy, but we’re in a “boy who cried wolf” situation. They tell us more or less everything is unhealthy these days, and as such, nobody takes any notice any more. But is it right to allow the government to act as the Thought Police in pushing these kind of policies until the Health Secretary is deciding what we have for breakfast each day?
If we do adopt a minimum pricing model, where does the artificial price stop? What if the minimum price of booze goes up to 50p a unit and nothing changes? Like an Ivan Pavlov experiment, do they continue to increase it by 50p a unit until it has the desired effect?
It’s clear to me that if the government and Susan Fowler want to reduce binge drinking they need to address the root cause and this is massively situational. She also needs to decide what exact problem she is trying to solve with these measures. Is it the cost to the NHS of treatment, is it the alcohol related violence, or is it something else?
There are downsides to overconsumption of anything. Depressed women watching Bridget Jones’ diary scooping Ben and Jerry’s Baked Alaska into their mouths is clearly an example of bingeing and is unhealthy, but I don’t see the government or Susan Fowler wanting to ram up the price of ice cream. If it’s so important to try to affect the consumption of alcohol by pushing the price up, why ignore everything else which is deemed unhealthy?
Superb Phil, loathesome scummy scag-bag scum-whore Susan Fowler is probably drinking champage in celebration of selling their overvalued hosue, through the customary abuse of taxpayers money.
It seems the nanny state is here to stay,regardless of government but I read recently that consumption had REDUCED!!! or is this another stealth tax we are looking at?
Susan Fowler, please die of liver cancer, you would make me very happy!
Poor Ian, the womans clearly totally raving bonkers……….. MAD AS A MARCH HARE
Interestingly, the health secretary is subject to a vote of no confidence from doctors as he attempts to slice chunks off the NHS. I guess he has more things on his plate, then, than Cllr Mrs Fowler’s attempt at lobbying.
Excellent piece Phil. I suppose I’m classed as a Binge Drinker, only drinking on a Saturday evening when out with friends/family and I know I drink too much as my body tells me so the next morning, but hell, it’s always a good night and as yet (touch wood) I’ve never had the need to visit any hospital due to my Saturday nights nor have I had contact with the Police after this ritual of 31 years.
It’s such a shame that Cllr Mrs Fowler is so concerned about the health & safety of the population.
Perhaps she should firstly consider the failure of the licensing commitee’s failures that lead to a greater risk.
Very good and well reasoned piece. Pity Mrs Fowler cannot think of anything original that might have an impact on the problem. Numerous others have already suggested raising prices, but thankfully many have seen the light and realised how little impact this would have on those it seeks to control.
It does appear, that regardless of whether people are ‘pre-loading’ from supermarkets or overdosing in bars, the problems mainly manifest themselves in or around licensed premises. The council and police already have a zero tolerance policy towards under-age drinking and similar matters, why not use other legislation that already exists to clamp down on the serving of alcohol to ‘drunks’ in bars and pubs. When it is perfectly clear that someone has already had more than enough, then surely it is ridiculous to serve them with more.
I do realise that one persons’ idea of what constitutes ‘drunk’ will differ from another. Police are very quick to close premises following repeated incidents of violence, which in many cases can seem harsh, but I am afraid that it does seem obvious that we have to look to the bars that sell alchohol to control the supply to people already under the influence. More pain for the hard pressed pub game unfortunately, but has to be better than simply trying to price booze out of the reach of those likely to cause problems.
Totally. I bet if you looked at the statistics, the late night problems caused by drunk people in Blackpool would revolve around a handful of bars, including the Che Bar, Walkabout and Underbar.
Unfortunately the authorities let these bars get away with it time and time again. Che Bar even got to choose when it lost its license so that it coincided with a quiet time!
My issues with the really cheap booze are regards to the boisterous behaviour it can cause. Supermarkets and bars have crazy price wars over this. Health issues, the sheer volume of Vodka consumed by ‘bingers’ before they hit the town is now frightening. Its a combination of reasons as to why I agree that fair and sensible pries should be introduced.
Stephen, at what point does an average Joe who doesn’t want to pay town centre booze prices become an evil, media-condemned, binge drinker?
There are two problems; people that are drunk and violent, and the health implications of binge drinking.
According to HM Government, a binge drinker is someone that consumes more than twice the government’s recommended daily limit of alcohol. For men this limit is 4 units and for women, 3. In drinks terms, this works out at 2 and a half pints of Stella or 4 pints of normal lager for a man and 2 pints of Stella, 3 pints of normal lager or 4 small glasses of wine for a woman.
It’s not much, but when you see the hysteria being banded about on the television or in the newspapers about binge drinking, they are indeed referring to men that have two-and-a-half pints of Stella, or women that have two pints.
A common misconception is that binge drinking revolves around buying loads of cheap booze from a supermarket and glugging can after can down your gullet, then going into town and drinking more, assaulting people, abusing people, and ending up thrown in a police van or sat in the gutter spaced out.
This view is boosted by the frequent use of pictures of young tearful girls (or the oft-used term ‘revellers’) sat on the pavement with their head in their hands, high heels tossed on the pavement and their dress dirty, ripped and showing a glimpse of underwear. The article would then probably tell you she’d had sex down a back alley with a man she can’t remember, because that’s what happens if you’re a binge drinker!
Crap.
More or less every bar, including yours Stephen, actively provides booze for people to binge on. Remember, anyone that has more than a couple of beers is a binge drinker according to the government. But you will of course tell me that most, if not all of your customers are not demonstrating violent tendencies and don’t end up strewn in a gutter when they leave. How can this be, if they are all binge drinkers?!
This is where the cross over between a binge drinker and a drunk needs looking at. Most binge drinkers are not drunks, but more or less all drunks are binge drinkers (I know someone who is drunk on 2 pints of normal lager, so that’s why I didn’t say all drunks are binge drinkers!)
Bar owners often cite that cheap supermarket booze is causing people to binge drink. I disagree. The cheapest I have seen lager in recent years in a supermarket is a box of 15 for £8 or three boxes for £20. The first point is that you only become a binge drinker once you drink more than 2.5 pints of premium lager. Buying 15 cans does not constitute drinking them all in one go, or even drinking 2.5 cans all in one go.
There is no reason for a bar owner to be concerned about binge drinking: the label of binge drinking describes an amount of booze which government boffins say could harm our health in the long term. That’s all it is. The actions of drunk people and the regular practise of serving them should be what bar owners are more concerned about.
After all, any problems of violence or antisocial behaviour only tend to manifest themselves in the town centre once town centre bars start serving drunks, as tramstop touched on. It doesn’t matter where they got drunk, whether it was on supermarket booze or in a bar. If they’re drunk they should not be served.
But as I understand it, serving people that are drunk is in breach of the Licensing Act. So whose fault is it that violence or antisocial behaviour has taken place? The supermarkets for allowing someone to drink cheaply, or the town centre bars for admitting and serving someone that is drunk? Or the authorities for being a soft touch on bars that serve drunks?
Most people that are drunk are not violent. At the end of their night they go home, go to sleep and wake up with a hangover. But these people are all binge drinkers.
Being a binge drinker doesn’t mean you’re an alcoholic or that you’re going to go on a violent rampage. Being a binge drinker doesn’t even mean you’re drunk.
Then you get Susan Fowler muddying the water by saying we need to ram the price up to 50p a unit for our own health benefit, but I don’t believe she is qualified to make this statement, and neither is the doctor she quoted either.
Common sense dictates that unless supermarket booze prices are upped to more or less match pub and bar prices, i.e. a box of 15 lagers would cost about £45, then people that want a drink are always going to purchase cheaper supermarket products. I have a half empty box of Stella under the stairs, but I still go to pubs.
I went in a town-centre pub the other day, asked for a pint of bog standard lager and a bottle of cider. £6.15. I’ve paid less in London. And the pub was a dump.
How do you define who is average Joe? In the same way the drink drive limit has always been ambiguous when wrongly measured by individuals in pints. Licensed premises whether in the town centre or not are in business to sell alcohol. Pubs and bars, clubs can’t possibly reduce their prices anywhere near supermarkets, and many brewery tied establishments are unable to purchase stock at supermarket prices. Pubs generally have been on the decline for the past 15 years or so as social trends change. Pubs no longer have a viable day trade or rely on a Mon- Thurs business like they did some years ago. Venues generally have to gain what they can at a weekend. There is nothing worse than gangs of people hitting a town centre on a Friday/Sat evening half pi**ed at 9pm. Perhaps the problem is there are not enough people like yourself who ” have a half empty box of Stella under the stairs, but I still go to pubs”.
Gangs of drunks in town wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t continue to get served despite being drunk. Where they got drunk is immaterial.
If pubs and bars are not viable, why did you open one?
It appears that the voice of many licensed premises owners don’t care about the actual health implications of binge drinking (which is how the term and definition came out) – they just want people to binge drink in their bar rather than at home!
Well done Phil – you hit the nail on the head again. Is it of any real consequence where a person drinks? Almost all problems resulting from drunkenness (n.b – not ‘binge drinking’) occur in or around licensed premises. If people could not got served with more booze to top up on previous consumption it must have a positive effect. If those who are already displaying signs of ‘over-exhuberance’ are refused more alcohol in bars, there would be little point in pre-loading before going out. I can see no other way than to drop this on the toes of those selling booze in bars and use existing laws to prosecute, just as they do for under-age sales.
As for Average Joe, if you look at the government definition of a binge drinker, i.e. a male that drinks more than 8 units or a female that drinks more than 6, then I think it’s fair to say we’re all binge drinkers.
It would be interesting to see how many people who are arrested for violent behaviour actually got tanked up on supermarket beers first. I’m surprised nobody has done this kind of investigation yet; maybe it’s because supermarket booze isn’t involved quite as often as we are told, and it is just assumed that people are drinking it because it’s cheap!
I think the the governments definition of a binge drinker is over hyped and out of touch with reality. Perhaps I could ask a range of students to do a case study as to whether they purposely purchase cheap booze before they go out. One thing is for certain drinking at home is on the increase some of the houses I visit on business, some of these characters who claim to be ill or out of work tend to have empty cans and carrier bags all over the place with booze purchased from large chain supermarkets. The community ‘local’ as portrayed in the comedy series ‘Early doors’ about 8 years ago has all but gone in many towns and cities. Pubs are closing down at a faster rate than ever due to the overheads and competition of supermarkets. An off licence or supermarket is bound to be cheaper per pint or bottle than a bar, club venue and this has been the case for many years. If you compare the price of a can of bitter/larger 20 years ago and the price today suggests that supermarkets are too cheap. Why did I open a licensed premises? and am I a licensee? I opened the Galleon because the original Galleon was legendary! I looked at re-opening the old Galleon some years ago but it needed too much work doing and the building was earmarked for possible demolition. I have never served behind a bar or have have the experience or desire to be a licensee, but I have instructed the best people possible. Are the glory days of bars/pubs are over? I would say yes and more so if landlords are too complacent and offer a poor service to their customers. The Galleon is owned and operated by Utopia Music Associates and we aim to promote local music talent for both young and mature customers. Over the past 12 weeks fortunately we have done okay and have been approached by a large beer company to operate another former successful live music venue. I admit with the promenade road closures and the ‘pain and gain’ regeneration of Blackpool its a risky ploy and as the saying goes ” a FOOL and his money is soon parted” I have often replied asked “how did the fool obtain the money in the first place” By working hard and doing things right!
One other thing. As a licensee (I think?) do you believe that people that buy booze in the supermarkets would instead go out and spend that money in pubs and bars if the price of booze in supermarkets was increased artificially? Or would they just not spend it?
Its difficult to get the balance of pricing just right. Town centre bars on the whole are quite expensive at weekends and sometimes a little too cheap Mon to Thurs. The Galleon offers live music and we do our very best to not attract the undesirables, generally this happens when drinks are too cheap! The Galleon weekend prices are brewers recommended selling prices and do not get increased at 8pm on a Friday like a good few other establishments. Our aim is to look after the locals all year round and to also promote local music talent. The anticipated summer season trade is just a bonus as opposed our main focus. Strict door policies and common sense when a customer looks and acts too drunk or clearly under-age. Our Monday student night is well behaved! and we hope it become a cult venue to the artistic characters who live within the Fylde Coast.
Hooray for Stephen Pierre, proper geezer,staunch natural justice protagonist and shrewd buinessman ,offering a proper service for proper people,Blackpool needs more like you Sir!
There is no doubt cheap shop-bought booze has some effect on the increase in drunkenness. Let’s take the discussion 1 stage further – Blackpool is a ‘Resort’ where the population is boosted massively by visitors, especially on Saturdays. Is anyone suggesting that the visitors are buying alcohol from supermarkets for consumption before going out into town? ……………..Thought not – so the conclusion must be that the trouble on Saturday nights, when most occurs, is as a result of booze bought in pubs etc. This does tend to dilute all the suggetions that cheap supermarket booze causes the problems of drink-fuelled incidents in Blackpool, as most involve visitors and occur on Saturday nights. Takes us back again to looking at the pubs that continue to supply drink to those who have already had too much. AND start making the punishment fit the crime. If guilty of any crime whilst under the influence – make this an aggravating factor rather than mitigation.
Surprised dave daly hasnt said anything,lol.
Many Thanks! Cards on the table I say. On the whole Blackpool Licensing don’t mess about, they hold regular group meetings, random premises inspections and have mystery shoppers and under age customers. They insist on strict door ID policies, registered security when applicable and demand appropriate number of CCTV cameras. I believe town centre venues which are too cheap and have very late licenses can potentially become a victim of their own success. They attract a lot of young people late who don’t have to get up in the morning for (whatever reason) who will go to such places. Whilst I accept the clear point that a lot of visitors on a Saturday hit Blackpool Town Centre in equal measure there are a lot of local mid weekers aged around 18-30 now from a culture of second generation families who have never worked, they buy cheap booze party at home or at their mates houses and go out late with a disregard of personal responsibility its a great shame and I genuinely believe the availability of cheap booze deals has a lot to do with the lack of awareness. See you next Tuesday at The Galleon a party for all our good regulars to celebrate 3 months of sailing through the worst months of the year!
Really Stephen? I thought that all the vodka I’d drunk in the Galleon (and the sambuca thrust upon me halfway through a song by a member of the audience
) added a little bit of authentic bite to the blues jam proceedings on Moday night! 
PS Nice piano playing by the way – thanks.
Tangerine if you were bought drinks by customers that says a lot! I thought you were only staying for one?? anyway you certainly feel the ‘blues’ whether sober or after a few vodkas!. I am sorry about playing the odd wrong chord but it our jam session was completely LIVE and unrehearsed! spontaneity is magic! I am very pleased that our predominately younger /student Monday crowd appreciate guest appearances from experienced mature guest musicians such as your good self. 20 years ago I did exactly the same thing at the old Galleon on Adelaide Street Happy days!