Noticed how all of a sudden the moral minority has become obsessed with "binge drinking" and all of the problems associated with it, as if this is something new ? They want to stop 24-hour licensing because this will only make it worse (who says?), and probably want to put anyone out on a Friday night into prison just to be safe.
As someone who has been known to take a drink or two on occasions, perhaps I can shed some light on the problems of binge drinking. Just for the record, this problem isn't new at all ... it may have gotten worse in recent years, but the problem has been around for years.
Here's a suprise for you: those who are out drinking in town centres hate the violence even more than you! After all, they are more likely to get caught up in it. You can see this for real in any nightclub ... whenever an incident occurs, everyone draws back to avoid what is happening.
So do we need new laws to deal with this ? No. Just take those who are responsible, and lock them up. Or if you want to be trendy use those new ASBO things to ban such people from drinking areas after dark.
Problem solved. And by the way, hurry up about it ... I'm out this weekend.
Drunken people are noisy. Well the ones you notice are I suppose, but not everyone makes a huge racket when they're drunk. But what's the problem ?
Cities are noisy places. If you choose to live in a central location (as I do), then you are going to have to live with the noise. And it really isn't that bad ... drunken people may assault my ears late at night, but the traffic is far louder. Lets have a bit of action against stupidly noisy cars before tackling the problem of loud drunken people!
Oddly enough, the noisest drunks where I am are probably the very people who complain the loudest about binge drinking in city centres. My flat is close to a posh winebar which regularly pours out slightly innebriated middle-class and middle-aged people at closing time.
This one doesn't have an answer.
Urinating in public is pretty disgusting I'll admit, but where are the public toilets ? And are they open ? I'll let those who are in bed by 10pm every night into a little secret ... they shut at night just when they are most needed!
Amongst other things alcohol is a diuretic which means you really need toilets after drinking. And it is not as though you need to have drunk a bar dry to need to urinate frequently especially as you get older. Drinkers pay taxes too, so why are there no toilets provided for us ?
Leave public toilets open, and possibly supplement them with pissoires in city centres (these could be temporary night-only structures) would help to solve this problem.
Nobody likes finding this, but it will happen to those inexperienced enough to not know their own limits. It cannot be stopped, but it can be cleaned up again afterwards.
Make the bars fund cleaning patrols to wash down the mess in the early morning. It would not cost that much, and everyone benefits.
I have not mentioned the health problems caused by binge drinking, but the moral minority do not really care about that. And in most cases, people get bored with excessive drinking. The most serious issue is the violence associated with drinking, and that it caused by a tiny minority who should be prevented from drinking until they have learnt to behave whilst drunk.