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Out go drinking games in UK booze crackdown

I was just wondering how this is viewed in the UK, and how everyone else thinks about it. At first I was going to rail on about how "Big Brother UK is taking another step", but then I read what you Brits actually DO, and I realized that even the wildest Frat parties seem like tea parties with macho man overtones.

Whats the deal UK?

EDIT: Wow, I really wasn't thinking and typing at the same time... edited for massive grammatical and syntactical nonsense.

If people want to get smashed they will find a way and pay for a way to do it.

What the Government should be doing is stopping me ordering Jager and Tequila when I first hit the bars on a night out (no warm up drinks for me) its for my own good!

Seriously free drinks promos are OTT but the government have done a massive U turn (no surprise). First they partially deregulated the licensed trade by allowing longer openings and looser laws and now this...

Britain has a serious drink problem, not for the first time. The best way to reduce it is to make alcohol more expensive.

What they ought to do is put a minimum retail price on a unit of alcohol.

Scotland are planning to do that so we will be able to see the effect and copy if it is helpful.

A minimum price of say 75p per unit would not affect pubs, where a pint (3 units) is well over the minimum but it will reduce the sales from supermarkets where you can often buy a unit for less than 50p.

Kilkrazy wrote:

Britain has a serious drink problem, not for the first time. The best way to reduce it is to make alcohol more expensive.

What they ought to do is put a minimum retail price on a unit of alcohol.

Scotland are planning to do that so we will be able to see the effect and copy if it is helpful.

A minimum price of say 75p per unit would not affect pubs, where a pint (3 units) is well over the minimum but it will reduce the sales from supermarkets where you can often buy a unit for less than 50p.

This would still not solve binge drinking nor our irresponsible attitudes toward drink and getting drunk.






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oh and check this out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8465970.stm

Drink is quite expensive in Ireland, and it doesn't stop us from having a national drinking problem.

Having said that, my experience of student drinking culture especially in the UK was shocking. I'd rarely ever seen that level of binging over here (though it does happen, just not usually with Undergraduates.)

Tricky issue. Changing attitudes towards drink is difficult. I myself like to drink, and especially enjoy beer. I try to keep a watch on it, but I bet by some standards I'd be worryingly fond of drinking.

If it means that people will get less drunk on a night out, having to deal with drunk people annoys the hell out of me, I used to work friday and saturday nights in a restraunt, going home at 1o'clock ment having to put up with the reak of vomit and piss, loud mouth yobs that could turn violent in a few seconds.

I have never understood why people can't just have a few drinks and have fun, instead they need to get pissed.

on the commercial side of this tesco, asda and sainsburys all sell large packs of beer at a loss to bring customers in.

Britain works some of the longest hours in Europe.

Britain, until recently, had some of the strictest drinking regulations in Europe.

Net result? You have a populace looking to have some fun, and limited time to do it in. Thus, binge drinking became a necessity.

Oh, and just for some perspective, having more than 2 pints a night is actually defined as binge drinking.

This is not a modern problem, and I would genuinely argue it's not actually that much of a problem at all.

Binge drinking isn't a necessity. Seriously. You can have a couple of pints without getting bladdered.

But having those couple of pints IS binge drinking, apparently. That is my whole point. As for the 'evidence' produced in the Gutter Press. Give me a camera, and a Town Centre by night, and I'll find pictures of pissed up people for you. But I'll also find far more pictures of people having had a pleasent night out and a few pints merrily making their way home without spewing, fighting, passing out etc.

Storm in a tea cup.

A couple isn't more than two, unless you're talking the hiberno-english derivation from the irish cúpla, meaning a few.

Personally, I'll have 6-8 pints on a night out, and still be upright. Talking absolute bollocks of course, but upright and coherentish.

But even on a quiet night, where I might not hit the pub until 10 p.m. (like Fridays sometimes) I'll have 3, but apparently still be part of the Binge Drink Scourge.

And it's not pissy Lagers I'm drinking, preferring as I do a good Ale, or perhaps a Porter if one is on offer, so the drink offers rarely interest me. Plus there is always a catch. £10 all you can drink sounds good, until you realise most people hitting the clubs will be sozzled already, only having a couple of pints once inside, thus spending more, without drinking more. They aren't daft the clubs.

I'll drink six in a night out without much problem. And I can go to 8 or 10 without being a complete liability. It doesn't make it healthy or responsible though.
By the way, in Ireland the standard for a binge is apparently higher:
http://www.drinkaware.ie/index.php?sid=2&pid=146

3 pints, and they accept that this is disputed by researchers. I think a lot of it depends on your mass, what you've eaten, how long you were drinking, and so on.
When I go out, we arrive at the pub around 6, and leave around 12.30 or so. Drinking six pints over six hours is a lot different to drinking six in 3 hours.
When I was in Liverpool, that was what shocked me about the undergrads- I was in the pub reading and having a quiet pint from about six. When they arrived at 10, they caught up with me (I was 3 pints in) in about 40 minutes, and then kept going at full throttle, downing pints and shots at (to me) incredible speed. I wouldn't enjoy that sort of drinking, and it definitely struck me as a binge.

Altered_Soul wrote:Out go drinking games in UK booze crackdown

So wait, if one were to toast each witty remark by MP, that's illegal?

What?


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Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:having more than 2 pints a night is actually defined as binge drinking.

Only if those pints are pure vodka...

Wow. A couple of beers is considered "binge drinking"? It was always my belief that binge drinking was drinking for an extended length of time; say buying 3-4 cases and going through them in a weekend.

Doesn't matter how potent the pint is. I drink Hobgoblin, which is 4.7% draught, or 5.3% bottled. 2 pints of either and I'm binge drinking.

Load of worrying about nothing if you ask me. Though having said that, I rarely drink at home. Much more of a social thing for me. Mind you, I could murder that 80/- if I could find the bugger.

I'm sorry, but 2 pints isn't binge drinking. Especially if it's beer. That's 3 bottles, which is nothing in an afternoon of gaming. What next? Splitting a bottle of wine with the missus over dinner? Riciculous.

When I was in my prime, Id have a half-dozen pints of Guinness, maintain a slight buzz for the night. I'm sure I'd have blown <.10 if I'd been tested.

Sorry, but having some lightweight set the standard simply doesn't work. 2 pints isn't a binge. It's just getting started.

Bump it up to a half-dozen shots in an hour, and I'd agree.

Its not the government's place to tell you what to do. Unless you're harming others there is no state interest. Form a petition, tell them to feth off, protest, blow up parliament with gunpowder, bring out the guillotine, Vive Le Napoleon! Sorry the voices were talking again.

As I posted, the definition varies from place to place. There is a lot of debate about what constitutes a binge and two pints isn't the accepted standard.

Also, [dons stupid hat] six pints? You wuss. In my prime (crap, have I passed my prime at 25!?) I'd happily drink 12 pints in a night and still have room for some whiskey.[/doffs stupid hat]
Achem.
Binge drinking is bad!

I had to drive home, so I kept things at a simmer.

Hahahahah!
Achem.
Drink driving is bad!

It's only bad if you actually drink too much and then get caught.

The current UK definition of binge drinking is 10 units in a session for a man.

I am currently drinking a 500Ml can of Becks Lager which contains 2.5 units. Earlier on I had a can of Yebisu Premium Malts which probably contained about 2 as it is smaller (350ml.)

If I did go on drinking, another two cans of Becks would put me on the verge of an official binge.

Those four cans would be about three pints in volume (Imperial pints, of course.)

WTH is this "units" business?

WTH is this "units" business?

http://units.nhs.uk/

Recommended limit is 4 units per day (ish)

JohnHwangDD wrote:

Altered_Soul wrote:Out go drinking games in UK booze crackdown

So wait, if one were to toast each witty remark by MP, that's illegal?

What?

Read the article, it is a ban on pubs and bars (with liquor licenses, or whatever their equivalent in the UK) from hosting promotionals and drinking games themselves. Doesn't ban drinking games otherwise. That would be beyond silly.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Doesn't matter how potent the pint is. I drink Hobgoblin, which is 4.7% draught, or 5.3% bottled. 2 pints of either and I'm binge drinking.

Don't forget 3-4 packets of pork scratchings. I find it really gives a superior dry mouth to ease the passage of aforementioned beverages.

But i LIKE binge drinking! :S