What Yobs?

28 November 2005



England’s Liberalized Drinking Laws Survive First Week-End

For New Yorkers, whose bars must close no later than 4 am, a visit to London for a booze up has always been a shock. Those Upper East and West Siders who rarely leave their own homes on Friday and Saturday before 11 pm for a night out used to find London shutting down at that hour. Those old enough can remember the pubs closing in the middle of the afternoon as well. This past week-end was the first of potentially unlimited drinking hours, and the result was not the lager-fuelled chaos the Tory Party predicted. The papers had no reports of such, and the only article one could find on the matter was called “The civilised face of late-night drinking.

Those on the Continent drink differently from the Brits, or so the press has said. The French and Italians, many contend, start early in the day and keep at it with a sip here and there. The English, though, are binge drinkers, slamming down pint after pint of beer as quickly as they can before getting into a fight, puking in the gutter and destroying a neighbor’s property. Stereotypes are largely nonsense, and these are no different.

What is different is the way various governments have dealt with this legal drug. Outright prohibition failed miserably in America and gave the nation organized crime families that are only now getting their just desserts. In Europe, wine has been part of the local culture since the ancient Greeks; after all, to many, philosophy is nothing more than drunken bs-ing. The English and Welsh rules (Scotland has a separate legal system which has been more sensible on many points) on boozing were set around a hundred years ago. Open at 11.30 am, close at 2.30 pm, open at 5.30 pm, close 11 pm. Mrs. Thatcher got rid of the mid-day closing rule, may she get time out of hell for it. Essentially, though, one had to go to a private club to get a drink after 11 pm – odd that those well-off enough could always find a place to drink after hours.

Mr. Blair’s government decided to let adults consume alcohol when they wanted, hoping to create the café culture of the Continent (fat chance). The Conservatives complained that this would result in an upswing in violent crime fueled by ethanol and hedgehog flavor crisps. While one week-end does not a trend make, the reports are that last week-end was normal. What happened was that people went out a bit later and stayed out a bit later. Some were very adventurous, attending the theatre and then going out to eat and ordering wine to go with their food.

The police should get some credit for this. In more than a few areas, they had arranged for a bigger presence on the streets, and there was more than one deliberate crackdown on (illegal) drug use in Essex. This deterrent is the hallmark of good, anticipatory policing. Also, it was the coldest night of the year, and as a spokesman for the Kent Police said, “Nobody wants to fight in cold puddles and people tend to behave themselves when it is icy.”


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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