Britain May Ban 'Happy Hour' As Alcohol Related Deaths Rise

LONDON — Britain is considering a ban on "happy hour" discounts at bars and restaurants to curb drinking, a spokesman said Saturday, as health advocates warned that a rise in liver-related deaths among young people may signal a future epidemic.

Health officials will decide on whether to ban the happy hours _ designated times for discount drinks _ once an independent policy review is published in coming weeks, a health department spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity.

The proposal was one of several aimed at stemming a trend in binge drinking in recent years, particularly among teenagers and young adults. The government also plans to spend 10 million pounds ($15 million) on a new public awareness campaign, and wants to improve enforcement of laws against underage drinking.

A health advocacy group said some of those young people were now showing signs of liver-related damage usually seen in older people.

Given that it can take 15 to 20 years for liver disease to develop, the British Liver Trust warned that the figures suggested the problem would only get worse.

"We're seeing a steep increase of deaths in people in their 20s and 30s," Trust spokeswoman Imogen Shillito said. "This indicates a big problem for many years to come."

National statistics show a steady rise in the number of alcohol-related deaths that typically fell heavy drinkers in their 40s and 50s who have abused alcohol for decades. From 1991 to 2006, the number of such deaths more than doubled to 8,758.

Alcohol-related deaths among people aged 25 to 29 were 40 percent higher in 2006 than the year before, Shillito said, citing national statistics.

Shillito said low prices for alcohol had helped encourage drinking among British youths, noting "they can buy alcohol with their pocket money."

The government plans to base its new alcohol policies, including possible new programs to help people reduce consumption, on the upcoming review by the School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield.

Officials say the report should clarify whether retail practices lead to excessive drinking. They are considering a ban on a number of practices, including drinking games and speed-drinking events popular at some British pubs.

Comments

[BushSunkOurShip]

08:30 AM on 11/23/2008

.Do you really believe that our water and food in not causing cancer and other health problems for Americans.
Americans no longer knows what they are drinking or eating and what other substance are in them... And the FDA agency just rubber stamps any prescriptions the drug companies wish them to with no control... ...
Why do you believe there has been such an outbreak of cancer..... Bush lowered all the standards for jobs , water and food right after he stole the election in 2000..
The GM genocide. Thousands of Indian farmers are committing suicide after using genetically modified crops

[Veri]

07:04 AM on 11/23/2008

Welcome to Western Civilization. Where everyone is just another cog in the wheel. Work until you die. Why is alcohol so popular in Britain despite its supposed wealth?

So, the idiots ban Happy Hour. Fine, England, Wales, Scotland, and North Ireland will just go down to the twenty-four hour alcohol shop and bring the booze home to house parties. Expect a spike in domestic violence. Of course, business will see a small drop in sales.

Another bureaucratic good intention with no forethought to the consequences. I thought Brussels and those EU morons.

[ins0ma]

11:47 PM on 11/22/2008

The Nanny State plods onwards. . . before long you won't be able to have sharpened knives in your own home, since you might one day cut yourself, or hot tea, since you might burn yourself. Where does it end?

[lisakaz2]

11:59 PM on 11/22/2008

Maybe so, but they do have a huuge issue with alcohol. You have to live there a while to see how much ppl can drink. My suggestion is to ban the "yard of ale" and that liquor that supposedly made Hemingway crazy.

[jeg]

03:14 AM on 11/23/2008

Yes, but are they drinking because the alcohol is cheap, or because they have other issues?

If so, raising the price doesn't really change much. Eliminating "Happy Hour" will probably depress a lot of people...

[sonshine]

12:35 AM on 11/23/2008

Lol!

[Blackbirdsings]

11:43 PM on 11/22/2008

I'm totally not a practicing Christian, but after college I forgot about drinking. It's expensive, wasteful of your time and only good on occasion. They must just be having way more fun over there then we are in America. America, home of watching Two and A Half Men and pretending we're fit.

So envious, except for that whole destroying your liver thing.

[BushSunkOurShip]

08:26 AM on 11/23/2008

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html

[myhomeo]

10:37 PM on 11/22/2008

"speed-drinking events ". Wow.

[lisakaz2]

12:00 AM on 11/23/2008

The only place where I did a pub crawl.

[PolarisCountry]

08:37 PM on 11/22/2008

Well, then I'd probably say Britain is one ladies night ban away from serious trouble.

[kasukabe]

07:23 PM on 11/22/2008

Better to simply raise the drinking age to 21 ( or higher ) and heavily prosecute anyone under that age who is found to be intoxicated in public ( and perhaps more importantly their parents ).

The sad fact is that in the UK too many people have been brought up without any discipline from either their parents or wider society. Should we be surprised that when alcohol is added to this mix of retarded development that the result is violence and anti-social behavior. Feckless parents and a wishy-washy PC society are the root cause of this problem and it won't simply go away by banning "happy hour". Much more serious measures are now needed to stop the further degeneration of our town centers once the sun goes down.

[FearlessFreep]

11:34 PM on 11/22/2008

Raising the drinking age to 21 is an arbitrary measure, both in Britain and in America.

[dutchman]

02:32 AM on 11/23/2008

With due respect, I disagree about raising the drinking age. In The Netherlands the drinking age is only 16, and yet Dutch youth are far less boozy than their English counterparts (or the Swedes - another group of big binge drinkers).

I think the answer lies in how Dutch children spend much more time with their parents than in most every other country. I've been several Dutch peoples' home where teenagers are allowed to drink with the adults, and it's my belief that this teaches kids to drink more responsibly. It also minimizes the forbidden fruit aspect of the whole thing. The same can be said about Holland's approach towards soft drugs.

I lived in Nebraska when they raised the age to 21 (I was 19 at the time), and I can tell you that it did NOTHING to curb the drinking behavior of me and my contemporaries. There was always a way to find alcohol.

Lastly, prisons in both the US and the UK are already bursting at the seams. Throwing more people in jail is not only seriously expensive, but I think leads to much bigger problems down the road.

In the end, it's like CSN said - "teach your children well".

Peace

Dutchman

[kasukabe]

09:14 PM on 11/26/2008

I don't think you realize the depths to which some levels of UK society have sunk. Dutch society is far more easygoing than the UK in most things but this is tempered by parents being more responsible. Our idiot politicians thought that 24hour drinking would bring in a kind of "continental cafe culture" without realizing the extent to which societal controls in the UK had broken down through feckless parenting and a broken welfare state that rewards destructive behavior and a "justice system" that all to often favors the criminal rather than the victim.

[IndyReader]

07:11 PM on 11/22/2008

I don't know how young these posters are, but bars in the US used to have "happy hours", too, back in the late 70s early 80s, usually of the 2 for 1 variety. Some places offered free food to offset the booze, others didn't. I went to a bar in Oklahoma City that had non-food 2 for 1 drinks in =very= tall glasses, it was my birthday, everyone was buying me drinks. Needless to say, I got pretty wasted even if I didn't drink them all.

[leeman79]

07:35 PM on 11/22/2008

Back in the day, holmes. Back in the day.

[sylar]

07:10 PM on 11/22/2008

This is nonsense, we like to drink here and that's that and it's not going to change. Restricting bars from running half price promotions is idiotic in a recession. They have absolutely no interest in solving the core problem, they just want to make a grand gesture to make it appear that they are doing something.

Rubbish.

I'm off for a drink.

[scampy123]

05:37 PM on 11/22/2008

Britains town centres are no go areas at night for normal folks thanks to Tony Blair and his Nu Labor stooges allowing round the clock boozing.

[Amsterdam83]

06:00 PM on 11/22/2008

Right, because it's better to have drinkers out on the streets than in the pubs...

[sylar]

07:11 PM on 11/22/2008

'Normal' folk in GB love a good drink.

The poeple I think you are referring to are 'boring'.

[OttoMann]

05:32 PM on 11/22/2008

Good idea -- because prohibition always works sooo well...........

Britain has a history of doing these ridiculous things -- like making the pubs close at 11PM, or being closed during lunch hour. You can't legislate away people's behavior, especially when it involves something sacred -- which alcohol is, dammit.

[DouglasAustin]

05:20 PM on 11/22/2008

Unfortunately I doubt the proposed policy would make a dent in the unfortunately high rate of British mutant-cy.

[sheilajoyce]

05:12 PM on 11/22/2008

The idea of banning the 'happy hour' is a good one. However, I'm sure you're aware that's not going to stop people drinking from other areas ie their homes, place's of business etc.
Western Canada has allowed private business's to sell liquor, making things even harder to control. While their hours open are longer, and locations handier, even sometimes certain prices lower/on sale.
As a recovering alcoholic now 19 mos., my late husband & I drank for 30 yrs, never drunk or bingeing (spelling?), just content hard working and drinking to relax. When we were each hit severely and permanently with a incurable health affliction because of it. Quitting was no problem, but the problem is now trying to spread the warning, and coming across many others with the same & other types of health problems from liquor.
Many of us are trying unceasingly, to somehow convince our Government of the desperate need for a mandatory ruling, so that each and every liquor container will bear a large health warning label, similar to whats been done to cigarette's.
Otherwise, are youth will not be aware of this problem, nor that there's still no cure's for any of it.
Therefore, who'll take over all of the Senior jobs, when we're all in old folks homes, being spoon fed and diapered, if our young people have also destroyed their health ?

[degenerate1991]

05:55 PM on 11/22/2008

Alcohol, at least in the USA, does have a (albeit small) warning label, like cigarettes. The fact of the matter is, however, that despite warning labels, people still drink,smoke, insert _____behavior.

[RockySoldier]

05:00 PM on 11/22/2008

if you weren't missing so many teeth, no one would need beer goggles...

[Bananafarm]

04:25 PM on 11/22/2008

Holy toledo--remind me never to move to the UK

[dutchman]

02:47 AM on 11/23/2008

I just moved out of there. Honestly, nothing I saw in the US or the other place I've lived in prepared me for the English. I lived in a flat directly across the street from 3 pubs, which I first thought was a great idea - I could so easily pop over for a pint or two. After two weeks, though, I realized that I made a huge mistake. With last call at 11:00, people would drink like mad towards 10:30 or so, and then spill out on the streets, blind drunk, loud and too eager to start fighting. I stopped bothering to try to sleep before 11:30.

All that said, English pubs are a lot of fun when you're in the mood for it, and (as I posted earlier), I don't think that prohibition will do anything to curb the Brits love of alcohol. I personally think the answer lies with how we socialize our kids towards drinking. It's more a breakdown of how we teach our kids than what laws are on the books.

Peace

Dutchman