Donate SIGN UP

Good thing or not?

Avatar Image
anotheoldgit | 10:55 Thu 22nd Jul 2010 | News
58 Answers
http://tinyurl.com/2bgpd2d

Do you agree with the proposed end to 24 hour drinking?

/// They hope this will herald the return of the traditional pub, in which the public can drink without fear of assault or abuse.///

The only way to see the return to the traditional British pub (if it is not already too late) is to scrap the no smoking law, which has see the closing of pubs, some that have been around for hundreds of years.

This week we were told that to ban the Burka would be rather un-British.

I am not a smoker myself, but I believe taking away the freedom of a person to enjoy a smoke along with their relaxing drink is totally un-British. To cater for those who wish to smoke, a room could be specifically set aside as a 'smoke room'

Regarding the drunken yobs who litter our streets, out-side the bars, I say impose a total non-tolerance law:

Anyone arrested for being incapable through drink should have imposed upon them a very heavy fine.

Anyone who has to depend on the NHS for treatment of drink related injuries/illness, should be charged.

Any drink venue that has a ongoing problem of drink related violence, should be closed down, or have their licence suspended for a period of time.

This way the sensible person that wishes to enjoy the freedom of having a drink no matter what time of the day, will still be able to.
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 20 of 58rss feed

1 2 3 Next Last

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by anotheoldgit. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
Why do we need to be able to drink 24 hours a day?
Question Author
Some do, some don't.

One could say the same regarding 24 hour shoppinng.

It is not a matter of having an uncontrolled need, it is a matter of individual convenience.
Question Author
shopping
I am not really a drinker myself, I don't see the need most of the time. I cannot understand why anyone would want access 24 hours. The only advantage I saw from this was when I rarely do go out we didn't have to worry so much about closing time being so early. If it changed though it would not effect me enough to care to be honest.

24 hour shopping is different I feel, a lot of people work long and odd hours these days. It has been helpful for me in the past when I have worked very irregular hours etc... But we do have online shopping now so it is not so much an issue for me now.
>to scrap the no smoking law,

This would be a backward step. It is like saying lets bring back bear bating as the people who look after the bears have now lost their jobs.

I stayed at a hotel over the weekend (Holiday Inn). Most of the hotel was non-smoking.
One corridor had smoking rooms, and when I walked down the corridor it STANK.

We are now begining to get pubs that DONT smell of cigarerte smoke.

And now less people smoke I have to say that when I walk past a person who DOES smoke you can really smell it on their hair and clothes. I dont think smokers realise how much they smell.

I go to my local Weatherspoon pub every so often for lunch and it is lovely to sit there and eat without people all round you smoking.

No, lets not go back to allowing smoking in pubs.
Totally agree with the smoking ban in public areas. As a smoker, it means that when I go out with mates, I smoke a lot less, also the atmosphere in pubs and clubs is much more pleasant.

Having a smoking room isn't a way out because you have to think about the second hand smoke that pub/bar workers would have to inhale (not just the customers).

24 hour drinking? I'm pretty sure it's not universally available. A bar would have to get a licence from the police (willing to be corrected on this). Of all the bars I go to, none are open past 02:00am due to the cost of remaining open throughout the night.

Totally agree with heavier fines for drunken/lewd behaviour. Zero tolerance espeically on night buses which can be intimidating for women when gangs of boozed up blokes get on.

Same goes the other way round - it can be pretty intimidating for lone blokes when gangs of boozed up 'hen nighters' get on.
I also agree with the smoking ban and I still have a couple of friends that smoke and also agree. It is so much nicer being able to go out and not come home stinking of someone else disgusting habit!
The sad thing about his country (compared to say Italy or Spain) is that they can have their cafes that sell both coffee and alcohol and most people are sensible about it and drink moderately.

Whereas we have people who just want to pour as much alcohol down their throats as quickly as they can and so they finish up on the floor on the street outside throwing up, either that or in a fight.

We dont teach people "how" to drink in this country, and to be honest it makes our country seem as though it is full of young morons who just want to be drunk all the time.

Trouble is we have a culture of encouraging people to get drunk, and to celebrate things by getting drunk.

I was listening to Talksport radio a few months ago, and they were interviewing a soccer player who had just won something. At the end of the interview they asked what he was going to do now, and he said "Get Smashed" and everyone laughed.

If he had said "take some herion" there would have been an outcry, but to say "get smashed" on alcohol everyone thought that was a great laugh.

We really have to do something about the whole drink industry.
It will make no difference to the 'binge' culture what so ever. Just as 24 opening, when it came in, didn't make any difference. The fact is if people want to 'binge' they will, regardless of how long the pubs are open. I never actually came across ANY pub that stayed open 24 hours a day anyway, have you?
The 24 opening was all about flexibility and it never caught on. As for 'binge' drinking let me take you back to 'the good old days' back in the 70's when I first stated visiting pubs, the pubs would close at 3pm everyday, and I like everyone else who was in the pub at 2.50pm would order two drinks instead of one whereas if the pub remained open we would have just carried on drinking sensibly until we went home. Sundays were worse open from 12 till 2pm! That was 'binge' drinking at its worse as far as I'm concerned, people chucking as much down as possible in the 2 hours they had, rather than taking it fairly easy if the pub stayed open.
But let me ask this, will the many Bars in the houses of parliament still open 24 hours a day? Of course they will as they always have done. Hypocrisy rules OK!
Question Author
/// I am not really a drinker myself,///

/// I don't see the need most of the time ///

/// I cannot understand why anyone would want access 24 hours ///

/// If it changed though it would not effect me enough to care to be honest. ///

/// 24 hour shopping is different I feel, ///

/// It has been helpful for me in the past when I have worked very irregular hours etc...///

I do not wish to be rude, but reading your post, gives me the impression that you are a very selfish person.

Me, Me, Me, springs to mind, sorry.
It's called an opinion AOG, I can only really give mine as it is mine to give.
Once again, government aiming at soft target. There are only about 400 pubs or clubs in the whole country with 24 hour licences. There are, however, many shops and supermarkets that can sell alcohol 24 hours a day.

As AOG says, the smoking ban did for a lot of pubs, but cheap booze from supermarkets is doing for a whole lot more.

The demise of the traditional pub (down from 75,000 25 years ago to around 45,000 now) can be laid at the door of the Lord Young reforms in the 1980s. He broke the tie between the brewers and the pubs. This forced the brewers to sell their pub estates and saw the creation of massive property companies which now own most pubs. One of the biggest of these is a Japanese bank.

These companies rent pubs to the tenant, often at prices that are beyond the venue's means. They have a tie with the brewers and the tenant may not buy his beer from anybody other than their landlord. These transactions are often at prices that are 33% or more above the normal wholesale price for draught beer or lager.

If a pub fails, they're not bothered, knock it down, build a load of flats and flog them off - massive profit on the property. And they'll always get planning permission. Somehow that doesn't seem a problem for them.
Unfortunately getting smashed is a cultural thing in the UK

We've been at is since Shakespears time and before.

In the eighteenth Centurary it was cheap gin and Hogath satarised it in Gin Lane.

The Victorians and Edwardians promoted abstinance and there were lots of campaigns as to the "Demon Drink"

I really don't think there is a quick fix to this one

As for pubs - if they can't make a profit I'd say there's just not a market for them and we can't go around subsidising them just because they've been here a long time

There's a lot of them about as the least sucessful close there will be more business for the remainder

I know it's a bit Thatcherite for me but with pubs the market needs to decide
You're saying greedyfly is selfish and you think it is unbritish to take away your 'right' to poison yourself and others when you go out for a drink(?)
... thats all good points but if i was walking home drunk from the pub say, wasnt causing any violence or anything but if the police drove past me and saw i was drunk do you mean for that i would get a fine? i didnt quite understand.

oh and im a non smoker but people smoking around makes me choke. i think they should smoke outside. why do i have to get cancer or something puffed in my face if i dont wish to smoke it?
i go and see bands a lot and before the ban people would be smoking around me. my voice would go and get all croaky before the band has come on and i'd have to go to to the bar to grab some water. but no its the ban i can enjoy being in a hall watching the band perform with no smoke and can rock out and sing along. so i peronsally feel the ban on smoking should stick.
-- answer removed --
p.s it comes off as selfish as its only being typed im sure if we hear everyone face to face it would sound different as these are only personal opinions of everyone and everyone is different.
If they closed pubs earlier people would just buy alcohol at supermarkets that are constantly open surely? It tends to be cheaper there also.
I think the smoking ban should stay as it is. It's nice that parents can take their kids to a child friendly pub without all that nasty smoke.

Most of the trouble from drinking was because all pubs were kicking people out at the same time. So they staggered it. Also some were drinking too much too fast because closing time was approaching and that's when the trouble started. All they've achieved is killing off the atmosphere in pubs.
I think the problem is not usually with the hours the pub/club can open but with the attitude of some people. Whilst certain establishments may be a problem, generally speaking the best answer if not to restrict what the normal decent citizen can do because of the actions of a few fools. One needs to tackle root causes; in this case the best option is to educate the general public to treat alcohol with a bit of maturity.

1 to 20 of 58rss feed

1 2 3 Next Last

Do you know the answer?

Good thing or not?

Answer Question >>