I honestly think that to some extent the very rigid enforcement can cause more problems than it solves.
Enforcement does seem to be getting stricter in recent years but some local authorities are just going to far - as if under-age drinking in pubs was the biggest problem we had in society.
Some councils are obsessive about sending under 18s into pubs to order a drink. If they get served the pub gets fined, possibly closed for a period and the server prosecuted. No wonder pubs are so paranoid and ID so many people.
Back in the 70s, my parents would drive to the pub, leaving my sister and I in the car in the car park. Occasionally, they'd pop out to check we were ok, bringing us each a bottle of coke and packet of crisps.
We'd look around and see other kids, in other cars, drinking coke and eating crisps.
They'd then drive home, after a couple of hours in the pub. Even though it was lunchtime, there'd be no food; maybe a bag of crisps or a pickled egg.
I'm only 18, and I think teenage drinking is probably getting worse.
My friends and I are all from quite middle-class backgrounds, doctor/lawyer parents and such, but it still didn't stop us drinking from the age of about 14 and upwards. Drinking 2 litres of cider on a Saturday evening in the park was quite a regular occurence for us.
Looking back the amount we drank sometimes was scary, when we were about 16 or so we could easily get through 75cl of vodka in a night. I'm trying to drink less now
It's been going on for years so it's like feral gangs of youths. Suich gangs were around before the 20th century (especially A Clockwork Orange) and to my knowledge Ancient Roman Chariot racers had gangs of supporters fighting each other and did'nt a certain Guy Fawkes try and blow up The Houses of Parliament?
So binge and underage drinking is nothing new AND NEITHER ARE PAEDOPHILES, PROSTITUTES, FAT PEOPLE, SMOKERS AND DRUG ADDICTS!!!
Exactly, if we look through history and put it into context we are probably living through the most civilised period of human history there has ever been.
I'm only 18, and I think teenage drinking is probably getting worse.
My friends and I are all from quite middle-class backgrounds, doctor/lawyer parents and such, but it still didn't stop us drinking from the age of about 14 and upwards. Drinking 2 litres of cider on a Saturday evening in the park was quite a regular occurence for us.
Looking back the amount we drank sometimes was scary, when we were about 16 or so we could easily get through 75cl of vodka in a night. I'm trying to drink less now
to be fair I did that 20 years ago as did all my mates - though not middle class
i just used to syphon off bits from each spirit bottle i could find mix it all up and drink it - tasted vile but better then father noticing i had taken loads of one, and did the job. it only really stopped when a friend got admitted to the childrens hospital with alcohol poisoning
I'm only 18, and I think teenage drinking is probably getting worse.
On what do you base this since you weren't there when the previous generation were around and drinking? I'd ask some people of your parents generation - when you are older - as now most will still think you are too young to be told the truth about their own habits in case you copy them...
The law on the age at which you can drink alcohol is complicated. Before the age of 18, you are not allowed to buy alcohol in pubs or shops, drink alcohol in pubs or outside in public places. It is also unlawful for anyone else to buy alcohol for you if you are under 18 and the drink will be consumed in a pub or public place.
However, if you're aged 16 or 17, you are allowed to drink wine, beer, or cider (but not other alcohol) with a meal in a restaurant, hotel or part of a pub set apart for eating meals. You can only do this if someone aged 18 or over is with you at the meal and buys the alcohol.
Any child aged five or over can drink alcohol at home or on other private premises but children under the age of five can only drink alcohol on a doctor's advice for health reasons.
to be fair I did that 20 years ago as did all my mates - though not middle class
i just used to syphon off bits from each spirit bottle i could find mix it all up and drink it - tasted vile but better then father noticing i had taken loads of one, and did the job. it only really stopped when a friend got admitted to the childrens hospital with alcohol poisoning
Oh no of course, I just meant that what my friends and I were doing was actually relatively good to what the Jeremy Kyle types were doing. (I hate to sound snobby), but it's not unusual to see 14 year olds with a large bottle of vodka round the council estates at 6pm on a Friday.
I worked behind a bar when I was 16, my dad told the landlord I was 17! So he said OK we'll try her out. Thing was when it was my 17th birthday I'd to tell the landlord I wasn't actually 18 but only 17. He wasn't mad at me but at my dad.
I loved working behind that bar and of course I drank.
All the stupid drunks that think they are something special or think they are hard and commit crimes. You need to burn them in the center of the city just to be a lesson to all others.
All the stupid drunks that think they are something special or think they are hard and commit crimes. You need to burn them in the center of the city just to be a lesson to all others.
Or put them in the pillory outside the pub/bar/club they glassed/attacked somebody just for looking in their direction but not directly at them and give 'em TEN lashes for each drink they had the stick their portraits up on the walls/ windows saying who they are and what they've done and BAN THEM from EVERY OFF LICENCE PUB/BAR/CLUB IN THE AREA/VILLAGE TOWN/CITY COUNTRY FOR SIX MONTHS!!
I have been drinking since I was 14 (in 2001) I used to get into clubs and pubs, be served, either be merry or pissed and they wouldnt know. Most of the time the pubs never ID'd me at all. Since about 04 or 05 it got a bit tougher and literally every place I went I needed ID to get in. Now I'm 23 and dont get asked for any. I also think that if the law was relaxed a tad then 15,16,17 year olds could go to the pub and be in a controlled environment. There were times about 6 years ago where me and my mates couldnt get in anywhere so we got some bloke to buy us shit loads of strongbow and we sat in the park and got smashed off our tits and its pretty much what teenagers these days do now but worse.
I was going to pub at 16 and didnt want to get pissed out of my head like some kids do now. But that was because we was sat in a warm place to chat with music, pool, Drats, Crads and adults looking on.
I think if kids today had the chance to do the same they also wouldnt feel the need to get pissed out of their head.
Yes we didn't used to get nannied, we tried things and moved on. Bit of drinking, bit of fighting, generally a bit of bad behaviour, like normal animals might do when seeking boundaries. Got a few slaps along the way, no harm done.
Like most others on here, it was the norm back in the laste 80's to be in pubs aand cluns from age 16 onwards. No one asked for ID, they just asked your date of birth and it's not exactly complicated to knock a couple of years off of the year you were born.
Tbh, my friends and I used to go to the pubs, bars and clubs of The Old Kent Road. They were great, popular, fashionable places and the thought of getting banned and not being allowed in there when all of your mates were was all the incentive you needed to behave.
I'm not saying we didn't get drunk, because we did but we seemed to know when we were drunk enough and that was quite a long way short of fighting, flashing our bits, vomitting or collapsing in the street.
I was given watered down wine when I was a child did me no harm.
I was drinking at 14 on Saturday nights out(like kids do now), we would go to the pub and the majority of people in there were underage (those were the days when you could get fake id and it looked fake but people accepted it!) but by the time I turned 26 I had stopped, just don't like the stuff now.
'Obby 'Oss day in Padstow aged 14. I drank 4 pints of real scrumpy. I vomited in the harbour and have no idea how I got home. My father found me asleep on the front drive as he came home from work. I have never touched cider since.
Blue Lagoon in Newquay aged 15. Had taken half a bottle of my fathers scotch and drank it all before going in. Thrown out after vomiting on the toilet floors. The heel fell off my beloved silver platforms - I walked home a mile and a half and didn't notice one leg was 4 inches shorter. I have never touched any spirit since.
Fortunately I have managed to keep drinking beer and wine with no problem.
We were always served in Newquay in the 70's. In winter there was no trade so landlords were not choosy and in summer the sheer weight of numbers meant anyone got served.
Comments
Enforcement does seem to be getting stricter in recent years but some local authorities are just going to far - as if under-age drinking in pubs was the biggest problem we had in society.
Some councils are obsessive about sending under 18s into pubs to order a drink. If they get served the pub gets fined, possibly closed for a period and the server prosecuted. No wonder pubs are so paranoid and ID so many people.
Michael Martin of the (love them or hate them) Wetherspoons chain has been complaining about this "entrapment" recently: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/The-Boss-Of-JD-Wetherspoon-Has-Slammed-Tax-Regulation-And-Efforts-TO-Catch-Under-Age-Drinkers/Article/201103215950242?f=rss
We'd look around and see other kids, in other cars, drinking coke and eating crisps.
They'd then drive home, after a couple of hours in the pub. Even though it was lunchtime, there'd be no food; maybe a bag of crisps or a pickled egg.
My friends and I are all from quite middle-class backgrounds, doctor/lawyer parents and such, but it still didn't stop us drinking from the age of about 14 and upwards. Drinking 2 litres of cider on a Saturday evening in the park was quite a regular occurence for us.
Looking back the amount we drank sometimes was scary, when we were about 16 or so we could easily get through 75cl of vodka in a night. I'm trying to drink less now
Exactly, if we look through history and put it into context we are probably living through the most civilised period of human history there has ever been.
to be fair I did that 20 years ago as did all my mates - though not middle class
i just used to syphon off bits from each spirit bottle i could find mix it all up and drink it - tasted vile but better then father noticing i had taken loads of one, and did the job. it only really stopped when a friend got admitted to the childrens hospital with alcohol poisoning
Don't you think it would've been better if you had been drinking in a pub, with music and pool etc. to occupy you, and other people to chat to?
On what do you base this since you weren't there when the previous generation were around and drinking? I'd ask some people of your parents generation - when you are older - as now most will still think you are too young to be told the truth about their own habits in case you copy them...
However, if you're aged 16 or 17, you are allowed to drink wine, beer, or cider (but not other alcohol) with a meal in a restaurant, hotel or part of a pub set apart for eating meals. You can only do this if someone aged 18 or over is with you at the meal and buys the alcohol.
Any child aged five or over can drink alcohol at home or on other private premises but children under the age of five can only drink alcohol on a doctor's advice for health reasons.
Of course it would have been better, but we weren't allowed anywhere near the pubs without ID.
When I was a kid in the 70s we didnt have any money
we used to club together our pocket money and get a Party 7 between about 10 of us
so we didnt get a lot to drink
also I dont understand the fact that kids nowerdays just want to get hammered
the drinking is a mean to a end
they dont drink to enjoy the drink just to get drunk
i think its mostly because they have unrealistic expectations in life
I loved working behind that bar and of course I drank.
Or put them in the pillory outside the pub/bar/club they glassed/attacked somebody just for looking in their direction but not directly at them and give 'em TEN lashes for each drink they had the stick their portraits up on the walls/ windows saying who they are and what they've done and BAN THEM from EVERY OFF LICENCE PUB/BAR/CLUB IN THE AREA/VILLAGE TOWN/CITY COUNTRY FOR SIX MONTHS!!
I think if kids today had the chance to do the same they also wouldnt feel the need to get pissed out of their head.
Tbh, my friends and I used to go to the pubs, bars and clubs of The Old Kent Road. They were great, popular, fashionable places and the thought of getting banned and not being allowed in there when all of your mates were was all the incentive you needed to behave.
I'm not saying we didn't get drunk, because we did but we seemed to know when we were drunk enough and that was quite a long way short of fighting, flashing our bits, vomitting or collapsing in the street.
After that, we started on the Manns Brown Ale, aged 14.
I was drinking at 14 on Saturday nights out(like kids do now), we would go to the pub and the majority of people in there were underage (those were the days when you could get fake id and it looked fake but people accepted it!) but by the time I turned 26 I had stopped, just don't like the stuff now.
Blue Lagoon in Newquay aged 15. Had taken half a bottle of my fathers scotch and drank it all before going in. Thrown out after vomiting on the toilet floors. The heel fell off my beloved silver platforms - I walked home a mile and a half and didn't notice one leg was 4 inches shorter. I have never touched any spirit since.
Fortunately I have managed to keep drinking beer and wine with no problem.
We were always served in Newquay in the 70's. In winter there was no trade so landlords were not choosy and in summer the sheer weight of numbers meant anyone got served.