British drunks make me ashamed

I've always detested the effect that too much alcohol has on people and I've never really understood the joy some people experience from throwing up on the pavement or waking up with a blinding headache the next day. Yet, in much of Britain, being inebriated to the extent of falling down in the gutter or blacking out is almost a badge of honour.

When the government changed the licensing laws to allow 24-hour drinking in 2005, it was hoped binging would decrease and a sophisticated Continental-style cafe society would emerge over time. That hasn't happened. Instead, according to the Local Government Association representing councils across the country the relaxing of restrictions has turned the centres of British towns into late evening crime-ridden no-go areas.

While it's true that enjoying a tipple has always been part of British culture, when I was a youngster growing up in Wales, pubs and bars were still the province of males although some had what was called a "ladies" lounge - reserved for couples. Few women went to pubs alone.

Children were strictly banned from entering establishments that served alcohol and could often be seen sitting on benches outside with a bag of crisps and a bottle of pop. I still recall my terribly prim and proper grandmother hiding the sherry bottle when she knew the vicar was coming to call. How things have changed!

Almost half-a-century later and the World Health Organisation says there are more underage drunks in England than anywhere else in the world.

In May, the British police reported a 50 per cent increase in women being arrested for being drunk and disorderly over the past five years. A 2006 survey of 17,000 people in 21 countries found that women in England and Ireland are the world's biggest binge drinkers, while the Department of Health says that one out of every six women in England and Wales are either alcoholics or suffer from drink-related health problems.

Fact sheet

These increases in consumption are on record. The Institute of Alcoholic Studies (IAS) has put out a fact sheet showing that the estimated annual alcoholic consumption for persons over 14-year-old in the UK was 5.07 litres. In 2004, this estimate had jumped to 11.59 litres. It further states that "UK consumers spend more of their disposable income on alcohol than on, for example, personal goods and services, fuel and power or tobacco".

Britons spend some £17 billion in pubs each year, which is more than double spent on other activities, such as cinema, theatre, museums etc. The total value of the UK alcoholic drinks market exceeds £30 billion equivalent to the entire annual GDP of many small countries.

The IAS says that up to 35 per cent of all accident and emergency attendances and ambulance costs are alcohol related while between the hours of 12 midnight and 5am 70 per cent of hospital emergencies are caused by drinking.

These statistics are shocking, yet a government that had no compunction in cracking down on smoking for its effects on the health of the nation has done virtually nothing to change the prevalent alcohol-fuelled culture, responsible for violent crime, rape, spousal abuse and fatalities on the roads. Could this be because drinking has become a social bedrock that is so ingrained in the British psyche it is practically unassailable, or is the government protective of the tax and VAT on alcohol that greatly swells its coffers?

This post on the Daily Telegraph website from someone who visited Britain during the New Year perfectly sums up this quintessentially British phenomenon:

"I was shocked to hear just about every presenter on TV on January 1 joking about the viewers' hangovers as if everyone watching on that day must have got drunk the night before. I think that is the problem in Britain when it comes to alcohol. Most people seem to feel it's not worth drinking if you're not going to get drunk. Not simply merry, but completely smashed out of your brain."

Now that it's the holiday season, resort towns all over Europe and further afield are bracing for the influx of young boozing Brits, whose morality or lack of it embarrasses locals. Last Sunday, the Observer quoted a police officer on Crete as asking, "What is wrong with the British? Why can't you have fun calmly? We try to be tolerant, after all, these are only kids, but we find ourselves asking why?

Reports of two drunken British women who attacked cabin crew and tried to open an emergency door during a flight from Greece to the UK, the British passenger flying from Manchester who fought with a stewardess while threatening to explode a bomb, and the liquor sodden British couple arrested on a beach in Dubai for indecent behaviour make me cringe.

I'm a vehement critic of the nanny state in the belief that individuals are responsible for their choices and should be free to do as they like as long as their actions do not negatively impinge on others. But in a country like Britain that is riddled with rules, regulations and restrictions in the name of health, safety and security, why isn't anything being done to prevent the terrible toll that alcohol is exacting on a people that were once known abroad for their stiff upper lips rather than their pickled livers?

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