Continental visitors to Britain’s high streets of a Saturday night are frequently bemused at the sight of skimpily clad youngsters emptying the contents of their stomachs against a wall or settling down for a little nap on a bed of footpath. The national sport of binge-drinking, however, is increasingly frowned upon by a Labour government at pains to micro-manage public behaviour. Today, The Times reports that Home Secretary Alan Johnson has announced that pub and club promotions “that encourage binge drinking will be banned within months”. Citing statistics that 860,000 annual hospital admissions are alcohol related, and cost the taxpayer “billions”, Mr Johnson has ruled that licensees face “fines of up to £20,000 or up to six months in jail for offers such as ‘All you can drink for £10’ or ‘Free drinks for women under 25’.” The announcement comes only a few years after a liberalisation of Britain’s famously strict opening hours in an attempt to instill a more placid “continental café culture”. “24 hour drinking”, however, has triggered what ministers see as an increase in “alcohol-fuelled disorder”. Good news though, the law “avoids an outright end to ‘happy hours’.”
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