I have lived in Britain for a while now and although the people are lovely (specially Sheffielders) I tend to notice that the British drink heavily- and they think that getting p***ed makes them such an interesting person. I'd often sit on a bus and overhear a conversation on "how last night was the best night ever as I was sick all over myself and woke up with my head down the bog".
I understand that not everyone will agree with me- but I tend to think that drinking in the only purpose of being drunk is plain stupid.. I mean don't you think there is so many better things to do in life??

it's something unique to Britain (at least in Europe) the whole binge drinking on a Friday or Saturday night.

As a student I went through the phase of "I slept on the bathroom floor last night, and don't even remember it", now I have enough drinks to have fun, but not enough so that I forget large portions of the night.
I also prefer 1/2 day hangovers to 3 day hangovers.

I think the way alchohol is taboo at a young age, and our rather restrictive licensing laws actually foster this binge drinking though.

If I knew a pub was staying open until the early hours and that the bar would never be so busy it'd take 1 hour to reach it, there would be less incentive to drink fast early on in the night. Maybe even less incentive to go out so early.
And if drinking wasn't so taboo (ie wine with meals etc... (watered) as a child) so we grew up with it, rather than it being an illicit under 18 experience, then wam, the whole thing legally at 18. Then people would probably have a more mature outlook on it.

All that said, I do enjoy getting pretty merry. I can dance, I can sing, i'm as attractive to women as tom cruise. My discourse is amazing and I have an opinion on every topic (much like in here). It's a good larf.