Tuesday 17 June 2008

Alcohol is not the problem...


....it's the low-life you put the alcohol in.



Restricting the sale of alcohol in supermarkets to those over 21, is just another example of the government failing to grasp the nettle and tackle the real (and difficult) problem. Papering over the cracks, as it were. And it also gives out the subliminal message that the individual is not to blame, but the alcohol is.

And there lies the problem - a lack of personal responsibility. If you get drunk and you know that causing trouble will land you a custodial sentence, no matter what sob-story you give the magistrate, then you are much more likely to take responsibility for your behaviour. However, this would involve building more prisons, courts, police stations and recruiting all the people to run them. The type of people who run Britain's government, are the same people who say things like "what kind of society locks up its people?", whilst wringing their hands in the comfort of some cosy London bistro. A stroll around Leeds city centre in the early hours of Saturday night, would soon disabuse them about what sort of society doesn't lock up it's people.


I have heard senior police officers state categorically that alcohol is to blame for inner city fighting on Friday and Saturday nights. Well, every now and then, events come up which have the secondary effect of producing a huge social experiment. Such an event was last Autumn's Rugby World Cup. 200,000 English fans out of a total of 1.8 million fans overall, descended on France and drank the place dry over a space of six weeks. Where was the fighting?



Good natured drinkers enjoy England success in Paris and help to explode the myth that alcohol is to blame for violence.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Majority of road accidents today are caused by irresponsible drivers who are drunk. The problem also includes bar fights and alcohol related diseases. To sum it all up, the main cause of these problems are alcohol.

The Amazing Toad said...

"Majority of road accidents today are caused by irresponsible drivers who are drunk."

Cite?

"The problem also includes bar fights..."

That problem is with the people who fight, not the alcohol. By stating "main cause of these problems is alcohol", you are merely reinforcing the abdication of responsibility so widespread in our society. If the main cause is alcohol, then how do you explain the absence of problems during RWC 2007, where over two million people congregated and drank without constraint, without incident.

Viagra Online said...

The solution to this maybe lies on other things that don't have anything to do with not allowing young people under 21 years old.