I have been thinking about this. The government want to solve drunken people misbehaving, fighting and generally making the city centre a no-go area at night by banning happy hour drinks promotions.

Will this work, or is it other things that are causing the problems, such as the design of pubs and bars?

If it isn't the cause, then banning happy hours will lead to consumers paying more, and those with limited cash such as students will not be able to afford their current level of socialising.

In fact, when beer is 2 for the price of 1, does both pints always get drunk by the same person, or used to cut the cost of a round?

The police who have the job of dealing with drunken high jimks have been saying for a long time that 'happy hours' and 'drink as much as you can' promotions do actively encourage people to drink far more than they should so would like them stopped. I'm quite sure if the pubs and bars had to pay the huge costs of policing drunken behaviour in our city centres they'd soon voluntarily put a stop to these drinking ways.

A load of rubbish. That is this typical governments answer to everything...I'm surprised they haven't said 'close the pubs'. So that way everyone suffers.

If people want to behave like louts then lock them up and if they do it again long them up for longer.

People on the whole don't usually act like louts, of course there are always the few exceptions to the rule. However a great many people when fueled with what to them is large amounts of alcohol can and do act in very unusual ways. With luck this is just giggling and staggering, but then you have the more annoying em of throwing up in gardens, going to the loo in inappropriate places, and then finally we have the people who start to act in a manner that can and does cause physical harm to themselves and others. Possibly if the punishment for this sort of behaviour was ssevere enough it might stop a great deal of it but we all know what it's like when we've drunk to our limit but just have another one either because the price is so good or because everyone around us is still drinking. A lot of people are remarkably stupid when it comes to drinking so stopping 'happy hour' and such like would curb some of the excess drinking that goes on pure and simple.

The cause of binge drinking is surely the ludicrous licensing hours in this country?

Many, many years ago I read an article that said, "A drunken person acts out their true personality," and if this IS the case, then half the idiots I've seen in and around pubs must be complete mental cases under their sober facades.

Its about time that every time the police are called upon to sort these cretins out they are billed for the service.

"Good morning sir. Now you've sobered up you may go home. Here's your bill. It includes cost of - a) Six officers for 1 hour @ £? per hour. b) Petrol and wear and tear of two patrol cars and one van (including transport to police station). c) Duty sergeant's time, 1 hour booking you in. d) Board (one cell) for 8 hours. e) Cleaning services regarding vomit and urine deposited by yourself. f) Fine for being a complete prat and causing a public disturbance. HAVE A NICE DAY, SIR!"

There's nothing riles me more than knowing that I pay for MY police force to be down town every weekend sorting out cretins at MY expense.:rant:

Originally posted by hotphil
The cause of binge drinking is surely the ludicrous licensing hours in this country?

Thats what i've always said.

It would also solve the problem of having the streets full of drunk people at kicking out time.
I just wonder if we were to have 24 hour drinking how long it would take people to get used to it and get out of the habit of going out at 7-8 and going home at 11-12.


Originally posted by markham

Its about time that every time the police are called upon to sort these cretins out they are billed for the service.

"Good morning sir. Now you've sobered up you may go home. Here's your bill. It includes cost of - a) Six officers for 1 hour @ £? per hour. b) Petrol and wear and tear of two patrol cars and one van (including transport to police station). c) Duty sergeant's time, 1 hour booking you in. d) Board (one cell) for 8 hours. e) Cleaning services regarding vomit and urine deposited by yourself. f) Fine for being a complete prat and causing a public disturbance. HAVE A NICE DAY, SIR!"


Now that idea i like a lot!:thumbsup:

Originally posted by markham

"Good morning sir. Now you've sobered up you may go home. Here's your bill. It includes cost of - a) Six officers for 1 hour @ £? per hour. b) Petrol and wear and tear of two patrol cars and one van (including transport to police station). c) Duty sergeant's time, 1 hour booking you in. d) Board (one cell) for 8 hours. e) Cleaning services regarding vomit and urine deposited by yourself. f) Fine for being a complete prat and causing a public disturbance. HAVE A NICE DAY, SIR!"


Kinda like that idea myself...

So it should be interesting to see what happens in 12 months when licensing laws go twenty four.

I can`t wait !!!! :heyhey:

Ooops, sorry mr Craig, I was posting at the same time as you.

24 hr boozing?:gag:

God help those poor sods who live near pubs!

:loopy:

Originally posted by markham


"Good morning sir. Now you've sobered up you may go home. Here's your bill. It includes cost of - a) Six officers for 1 hour @ £? per hour. b) Petrol and wear and tear of two patrol cars and one van (including transport to police station). c) Duty sergeant's time, 1 hour booking you in. d) Board (one cell) for 8 hours. e) Cleaning services regarding vomit and urine deposited by yourself. f) Fine for being a complete prat and causing a public disturbance. HAVE A NICE DAY, SIR!"



I forgot to add..........."And by-the-way sir, you are now on a 24 hour curfew (except during your employment hours) untill this fine is paid in full!"

"Pardon? You don't have a job? In that case sir that's 24 hours except visits to job centre (straight there and back) and £? will be deducted from your dole money each week. What? You can't afford it? Never mind sir, as you spent £? last night getting sozzled we'll assume you have that amount to throw away and can manage without it!":heyhey:

I'd just like to say I'm in full support of this type of punishment.

Let's lobby to get it into Law :thumbsup:

Thanks Dirk!:thumbsup:

If it was left up to me the money paid for the police force by rate payers would be refunded in full by these morons (and others such as litterers and vandals etc) through fines and/or 'clean up' work so that it could be rerouted into other uses, such as more police.

Basically, the yobs etc pay out of their own pockets for the wages and resourses of those police and other emergency services used to clean up after them and their stupidity. Maybe at a fixed rate of £10 per person per hour used, plus a call-out rate of £50, plus vehicle 'rental' at £20 per hour, plus council clean-up charge of £20 per person per hour. PLUS board at a police station of £5 per hour!

A moron puking in the city centre at midnight requiring a police van and two officers to take him/her to West Bar to sober up for eight hours would have to pay........


2x officer for one hour = £20
1x police van for one hour = £20
Call out rate =£50
Cleaning up his/her puke =£20
8 hours in cell =£40

Total =£150 + fine for offence!

There are two ways that you can solve the problem overnight. 1. abolish licencing hours so pubs open to customer demands not a blanket kicking out time that always ends in trouble. 2) Legalise all drugs so that people weren't just drunk, some were stoned as well or buzzin! You give people more freedom they stop behaving like lab rats. If i was in a bar and I knew that most people would head home at a certain time I might hang back (if i had the choice) and wait until the rush was over.:rant:

I, for one, support the idea of 'Happy Hours'. Getting 'happy' on underpriced liquid refereshement is something I enjoy immensly.

Eventually , instead of 'Happy Hours' we could have 'Happy Days', or even 'Happy Lifetimes'.

I would willingly hand myself over to research a brave venture such as this.

But I agree, weed out the 'sad happiers' who don't only get smashed, bur smash street furniture and people up.

I'm surprised they haven't banned Aftershock and the like. It's clearly not a drink which you would spend half an hour supping on.

Originally posted by venger
So it should be interesting to see what happens in 12 months when licensing laws go twenty four.
It won't happen. It's always brought up a year or so before a general election, then after the election is won you never hear anything more about it.

Originally posted by Sidla
It won't happen. It's always brought up a year or so before a general election, then after the election is won you never hear anything more about it.

Ooh you synic!

Things do appear to be happening - local authorities are currently going through the consultation period for their local lincensing policies, so don't despair!

Originally posted by Andy C
Ooh you synic!

Things do appear to be happening - local authorities are currently going through the consultation period for their local lincensing policies, so don't despair!
Tenner says it won't change.

Originally posted by Sidla
Tenner says it won't change.

They've already passed the first stage of parliamentary papers... that's not happened before.

Plus it's a really good idea which is not a knee jerk reaction... oh, damn.

There's a programme on BBC2 at 1930 this evening about the booze industry's involvement in binge drinking.