We need to stop finding drunkenness so funny
The degree to which we are publicly drunk to the point of requiring treatment is really not normal
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Your support makes all the difference.Time for my most unpopular column of the year: the one in which I implore Brits to change our attitude towards binge drinking, only for readers to write in and accuse me of being everything from a killjoy to a snob, from “anti-poor people” (bewildering) to a miserable bugger (fair enough).
Memories of debauched party drinking are beginning to recede, but images of friends and family getting tired and emotional over the festive period are still fresh. It is exacerbated this year, as the dreaded New Year’s Eve looms, by being based in offices in the heart of London’s West End. Weaving my way through hordes of leery night-time drunks is bad enough, but it’s just plain disgusting tiptoeing through the vomit pools the morning after.
This year I had cause to spend some time in a central London A&E (UCH) for the first time in decades. There are no adequate words to describe the extraordinary patience, skill, care and concern that each and every medical professional exhibited, but – dear God – the unnecessary and overwhelming challenges that drunks and drunkenness place upon them.
The degree to which we are publicly drunk to the point of requiring treatment is really not normal, nor should it ever be regarded as normal. But, what to do? We have done so with drink-driving and we are well on the way to doing so with smoking. It is difficult to describe to our children how much more pleasant bars, restaurants and clubs are today compared to our fug-filled nights.
The first thing is to stop finding drunkenness so funny. We need to find a new way of defining nights out. Next, we must encourage a different way of drinking that emphasises alcohol as an accompaniment to food. We need to educate ourselves into savouring and sipping, not necking it down. Lastly – perhaps hardest of all – we need an overhaul of our alcohol-pricing policy. I’m not anti-booze. There’s scarcely a night a glass of red doesn’t accompany my meal. But I am vehemently anti-drunkenness. Stefano Hatfield is editor in chief of High50
Twitter.com: @stefanohat
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