24hr drinking - good or bad

[johnnyboy]

Not sure myself. There is little doubt that Britain has a binge drinking culture, but it would be foolish for anyone to believe that it is a new thing.

I am 31, and have binge-drunk when out with friends at weekends since 1989, and everyone was doing it then. The pub licensing laws were changed in WW1 because of the fear that excessive drinking by the proles could endanger the war effort.

Is it in our culture to excess, I wonder. If it is, surely extending licensing hours will make little or no difference.

The only benefits I can see for staggered closing times are the potential for shorter taxi queues.

Do you think pub licensing should be completely relaxed? And what are your reasons?

[cwathen]

I think certain shop licencing should be relaxed. Just like many other people, I like to relax with a few beers in front of the telly after work. But for me, 'after work' means 1-2AM. Considering that I can still walk into any number of pubs and bars at that time, it seems ridiculous to me that no shop is allowed to sell alcohol after 11PM.

Fair enough, if you let every 24 hour Spar sell for later hours then there could be potential implications, but really, why should a 24 hour Tesco store, located miles out of town not be able to sell me a pack of 4 tinnies after 11? Just as pubs are able to apply for late licences, so should shops be able to aswell.

Whilst we're at it, why is it that sunday licencing hours are still restricted? I remember the farce that it was when shops had to stop selling alcohol at 2PM on a sunday afternoon and fortunately that has now been relaxed and brought in line to pubs. But for some bizarre reasons, standard licencing hours still finish at 10:30PM on sundays, even though they run just fine till 11PM on every other day. What difference would it make to let pubs and shops sell alcohol for the extra half an hour if they want to? Similarly, pubs which are granted late licences are allowed to open till 2AM Monday-Saturday, but for some pointless reason are forced to closed at midnight on a sunday! Why?

I wouldn't necessarily say that all licencing restrictions should be removed and everywhere should be able to supply alcohol 24 hours a day, but I think it's high time to allow all pubs and shops to sell alcohol until 2AM unless there are specific reasons why they shouldn't, to remove the pointless restricted hours on sundays, and - possibly - to consider the granting of 24 hour licences to certain licenced premises - INCLUDING SHOPS - if the licencing officer for that area feels reasonably sure that it won't cause any problems.

[craig]

It should not be allowed because it will cause a lot more fighting and silly behaviour, and I think the goverment should put there heads back on. It's just stupid I would not allow it so think what effects it will cause..

Regards
Craig

[James Martin]

Your average pub should be allowed to go until midnight, that much I do think.

Agree with what's mostly been said otherwise.

[rdobbie]

Is it in our culture to excess, I wonder. If it is, surely extending licensing hours will make little or no difference.

I think the argument in favour of 24 hour pubs is that our culture of excess binge drinking has come about entirely because of our restricted serving times.

Young people look upon it as a "window of opportunity" between leaving work and last orders in which to pack in as much drinking as possible.

I believe that if alcohol was more freely available all round the clock, there wouldn't be this mass frenzy to get drunk within the space of a few hours.

[cwathen]

I think the argument in favour of 24 hour pubs is that our culture of excess binge drinking has come about entirely because of our restricted serving times.

Young people look upon it as a "window of opportunity" between leaving work and last orders in which to pack in as much drinking as possible.

I believe that if alcohol was more freely available all round the clock, there wouldn't be this mass frenzy to get drunk within the space of a few hours.

I agree 100% with this. Even at work (I'm a pizza delivery driver btw), when it gets to around 10:45 (or 10:15 on a sunday), several people (me included, usually) start fervently clockwatching. The drivers plan routes to delivery which will involve passing the Spar shop, the instore staff start asking if they can nip over to Plymco. The reason - to buy alcohol before the licencing hours runs out. Alcohol that very often they don't want when they get the chance to drink it.

Similar things happen in pubs. When it gets to 10:55 you start seeing people downing their pints so they can fit one more in before closing. Not necessarily because they want another drink, but because they feel they ought to get one 'just in case'.

If you removed this restriction, there is the argument that things lke this wouldn't happen any more; if people know that they can buy alcohol whenever they want, they won't feel so pressured to do it during the restricted 'window' that exists at the moment.

On the streets, staggered closing times would surely also help to reduce incidents of violence. At present, most of the people out in a city centre pour onto the streets at once. A lot of them will go on to a nightclub. The volume of people trying to get in at once causes huge queues - queues which drunk people get annoyed in. Then just as things start to settle down again, the whole process starts over at 2AM when the clubs and late licence bars kick out and then people start queing for the kebab shop.

If there wasn't this en-masse spill onto the streets because of restricted hours, then a lot of incidents at present either wouldn't happen or could be dealt with more effectively and with less disruption because the police are suddenly faced with a mob of people descending onto the streets from all directions.

What I find beyond belief about these proposals though, is that YET AGAIN these proposed reforms refer only to premises with an on-licence (i.e. pubs and clubs). Why it is that yet again off-licenced premises (i.e. shops) are ignored and forced to continue to stop selling alcohol at 11PM is beyond me. I would say there is a stronger argument for allowing a 24 hour Tescos to sell alcohol 24 hours a day than there is to allow a night club to do so.

At the very least however, separate sunday licencing laws need to be scrapped, continuing to have restricted hours on sundays (especially for standard licenced premises where it's a pointless 'half hour earlier' rule) has no place at all in today's society.

[Johnny]

I think certain shop licencing should be relaxed. Just like many other people, I like to relax with a few beers in front of the telly after work. But for me, 'after work' means 1-2AM. Considering that I can still walk into any number of pubs and bars at that time, it seems ridiculous to me that no shop is allowed to sell alcohol after 11PM.

Fair enough, if you let every 24 hour Spar sell for later hours then there could be potential implications, but really, why should a 24 hour Tesco store, located miles out of town not be able to sell me a pack of 4 tinnies after 11? Just as pubs are able to apply for late licences, so should shops be able to aswell.

Whilst we're at it, why is it that sunday licencing hours are still restricted? I remember the farce that it was when shops had to stop selling alcohol at 2PM on a sunday afternoon and fortunately that has now been relaxed and brought in line to pubs. But for some bizarre reasons, standard licencing hours still finish at 10:30PM on sundays, even though they run just fine till 11PM on every other day. What difference would it make to let pubs and shops sell alcohol for the extra half an hour if they want to? Similarly, pubs which are granted late licences are allowed to open till 2AM Monday-Saturday, but for some pointless reason are forced to closed at midnight on a sunday! Why?

I wouldn't necessarily say that all licencing restrictions should be removed and everywhere should be able to supply alcohol 24 hours a day, but I think it's high time to allow all pubs and shops to sell alcohol until 2AM unless there are specific reasons why they shouldn't, to remove the pointless restricted hours on sundays, and - possibly - to consider the granting of 24 hour licences to certain licenced premises - INCLUDING SHOPS - if the licencing officer for that area feels reasonably sure that it won't cause any problems.

my local off licence stays open till 12-1am on weekends, are they breaking any laws?????????????????????????

[cwathen]

my local off licence stays open till 12-1am on weekends, are they breaking any laws?????????????????????????

I wouldn't know. I based my assertion that shops can't sell alcohol after 11PM because I've never seen one in my life that does, and there are several that I know would if they could.

Presumably then it is possible to get a later licence for shops. Does anyone know the laws surrounding this, and whether or not it is only available in certain areas?

[Martin]

I don't think full 24 hour opening is a good idea but I don't see the harm a few extra hours can do. There is always some eejit in Asda who will go under the barriers at the drinks isles in an attempt to get a top up.

[James Martin]

We need 24 hour drinking. Did we have problems during the last Rugby and especially Football World Cups? No.

I am in favour of it also because it would stagger the kicking-out times, which would also evenly spread out the demand for taxis, kebabs, etc. rather than it all be at 2am or 11pm.

[Martin]

We need 24 hour drinking. Did we have problems during the last Rugby and especially Football World Cups? No.

Yes but surely there is a certain amount of unity around these World Cup occasions. Ask yourself the same question for Rugby or Football old firm games.