Reading this article on the Beeb, yet another piece on binge drinking. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16466646
There is a good bit in there about encouraging drinking in pubs rather than letting people get rat arsed at home. However something that I don't get, is our tax on beer is 12 times higher on average than in Europe, yet to tackle our 'binge drinking culture' (apparently a binge is 3 pints in a day... oops!) they want to either increase tax AGAIN or judging from the comments on the article demonise drinking.
Aye the amount of binge (actual binge 7+ pints in my opinion) drinking is too high. But it is still a tiny minority who forget how their body works on a Friday night. Why should the rest of us have to pay for this? Why are these taxes blanketted across all beer, every brand, be it real, nitrowee or of wife beater ilk. Surely the problem lies with the big brands and cheap spirits in clubs and special brew, etc. No one really gets gazeboed on real ale or craft beer, drunk aye but not A&E worthy. Personally I feel full as if I've eaten a huge meal after 5 or 6 pints of ale on a night out to a nice pub and stop, my friends agree. So why not target tax? No one is binging on Chimay Blue yet that will be about £7 a bottle in a bar if new plans go through, and this is in the North, Lord knows what it'd be in the South. I was watching the Beer Hunter on youtube and Michael was at a Bateman's pub and a pint was 95p for good honest beer, I go to Cask (reasonably priced) and pay £2.30 after a 15% CAMRA discount, and for my lager drinking friends, will have a proper German Helles for £3.50 a pint. If the tax goes up, the young drinker who is constantly demonised no matter how responsible they are will have to save uo what little money we have to go out to a nice pub and enjoy eachother's company. This is not very English is it?
Furthermore, increasing the drinking age to 21 because it seems to have worked in the States.... Please be brief. Everytime I go to the States there is a constant sense of utter prohibition for under 21's, this never really works and can have bad consequences. For example there was a trend when I last went over there where teenagers at house parties got a big bowl filled it with booze and percription medicine and near enough killed themselves. They never get a taste or education so then just go mad. While in Europe where the drinking ages are generally 16, or even none existant or lower for alcohol strengths lower than wine. And the drink problem there isn't anywhere near as much as here, infact the people who cause a lot of their drink related issues are drunken Brits!
When we compare cultures, in Europe children are introduced to alcohol at a younger age with watered down wine or weak beer at meals. Here, we do that, but at Christmas or birthdays, and maybe on holiday and a cheeky swig of Dad's beer at the pub. In the States, it's nothing until you are 21, in Walmart they had a challenge under 40 thing going on and people are at a risk of just going mad. However due to our increased Americanization (in the ivory towers at least) we seem to be moving more towards utter prohibition and lack of education, when we should be going back to the way our drinking culture used to be, not getting demonised, I'm 19 but remember going to the pub for a meal and having a shandy, no chance now is there! So bugger off Nanny State and let me have my good British product, not the eurourine which causes the supposed problem.
Needed a rant, apologies.
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