Not so Happy Hour?

[A2]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3711029.stm

Originally Posted by BBC News Online

HAPPY HOUR has hit the bottom of the glass. Time seems to have been called on the era of two-for-one bevvies of an early evening.
The sad news came with an announcement from Home Secretary David Blunkett that the government plans to crack down on binge drinking and the resulting mess and violence.

Will this really have an effect? I would have thought that having heavier drinking concentrated in a couple of hours towards the start of the evening, when everyone is relatively well behaved to start off with would be preferable to people drinking at a consistent rate all night. Personally I make sure I've got a drink before happy hour ends, and then reduce my drinking rate because it hurts my wallet.

How will pubs that rely on this trade, eg, the ones where everyone goes before a night on the town cope? Will people just stay in and drink at home more before hitting the streets later, thus negating the effect? or will bars just reduce their prices overall so they're cheaper than the current standard price, but high enough above the current happy hour price to still make a profit?

[Deffeh]

Basically, its just becoming too expensive to get drunk, and thats the plan of the government as far as i see it. Personally i see the side effects of drinking as something that are a bit of an exception - they need to be cured, not prevented. More police to pick up more drunks, more cctv to fine those who act like twats under the influence etc. But dont try and stop us drinking, as it lets us forget about the world for a few hours ta.

[Dante Hicks]

I generally continue to buy drinks until I run out of money, so I'm not sure on the effects. Presumably, as you mention, the pubs could just reduce the average cost of their drinks to balance things out.

I prefer places without "Happy Hour" type policies as it means I don't have to drink stupid amounts early on in the night. But generally speaking, cheaper drinks = more likely to do something foolish, irrespective of when I buy them. You could be right though that people drink less as the night goes on if there's Happy Hour though.

Obviously I don't support this kind of state intervention, but bleh.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Deffeh

Basically, its just becoming too expensive to get drunk, and thats the plan of the government as far as i see it.

Amusingly, this makes other drugs a lot more attractive. I can easily spend £40-£50 on alcohol in a night, whereas I'd be hard pressed to take £50 worth of pills in an evening (without hospitalisation).

[Ste]

Mr Blunkett hopes its demise will free town centres of the tired and emotional gangs of mini-skirted lasses and their staggering boyfriends who materialise soon after chucking-out time.

Chucking out time.
There we have the problem. If we knew we could stay all night would we get so drunk in such a small space of time?

And anyway - how the hell is anyone going to make sure no pubs have drinks offers at certain times? It aint gonna happen.

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

Amusingly, this makes other drugs a lot more attractive. I can easily spend £40-£50 on alcohol in a night,

WTF do you drink!? I know London's expensive but sheeesh!! Unless you are including taxis. take aways etc when its kinda feasible.

[JC]

Mr Blunkett hopes its demise will free town centres of the tired and emotional gangs of mini-skirted lasses and their staggering boyfriends who materialise soon after chucking-out time.

He should introduce a shoot townies on sight policy, it would be much more effective .


P.S. I could spend the whole weekend wankered and not spend 50 squid on alcohol :eek:.

[Stew]

Originally Posted by JC

He should introduce a shoot townies on sight policy, it would be much more effective .

That is such a good plan.
I personally dont see why you cant just shoot them when they're lke 10 - its easy to see then if they will ever do anything constuctive with their lives!!
Anyway, I digress...

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Stew

WTF do you drink!? I know London's expensive but sheeesh!! Unless you are including taxis. take aways etc when its kinda feasible.

I don't take taxi's, and I suppose I am including take-aways. But some places you could be talking about £2 - £2.70 per drink (admittedly if it's relatively expensive) - that could be as little as 18 drinks. Over the course of a few hours, that's not too much.

Of course, I may be comparing myself to sbolly (my flat-mate) who has drawn £200 before going into a pub and then come out with less than £20. Admittedly this was 8 hours later but still...

[Marilyn Manson]

Is this not the same government that has so recently been proposing to allow pubs 24 hour opening? Surely shome mistake?

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

Is this not the same government that has so recently been proposing to allow pubs 24 hour opening? Surely shome mistake?

How so? Seems fairly consistent : Trying to stop binge / quick / peak drinking periods and encourage people to spread their drinking across a larger time period.

[SbOlly]

Originally Posted by Stew

WTF do you drink!? I know London's expensive but sheeesh!! Unless you are including taxis. take aways etc when its kinda feasible.

Last Friday night when me, Dante and a couple of mates went out, we went for some quiet drinks at 7ish. Heavier drinking at 9ish. And clubbing in a shit club at 11 till 3am.

I spent around £100. My work mate managed to go through £160. I'm pretty sure the others must have spent the same sort of thing. Its just the way of the high flyers!

Although buying 32 shots of Schnapps for £50 early in the night may have got the ball rolling.

[A2]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

Is this not the same government that has so recently been proposing to allow pubs 24 hour opening? Surely shome mistake?

I'm guessing that the theory is that without a happy hour then everyone will drink slowly, and therefore won't be so drunk so soon, so can carry on for longer.
And with 24 hour opening there's the benefit that not everywhere will be chucking out at the same time, and so there's less likely to be trouble in the wait for taxis or a bus.
Might just mean that some people are pissed at 7am though...

[SbOlly]

Originally Posted by BBC News Online

Friends of the family might have seen the writing on the wall last summer when pub crawls were banned in the drinking establishments of Falaraki, the Greek resort favoured by young Brits on hedonistic holidays.

How on earth do you ban pub crawls? Is it illegal to have a drink in more than one establishment on any night? Or maybe once you've entered somewhere that serves alcohol, you aren't allowed to leave unless you are escorted straight back to your hotel room.

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

How so?

It would be consistent if there was any evidence that it would reduce binge drinking. Although there is no evidence of that, AFAIK. In fact, the evidence has so far pointed in the direction of it likely leading to an increase in binge drinking, based on where 24 hour opening has been put in place in other parts of the world.

[A2]

Originally Posted by SbOlly

Although buying 32 shots of Schnapps for £50 early in the night may have got the ball rolling.

Presumably not all for you though...

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

based on where 24 hour opening has been put in place in other parts of the world.

Perhaps it's more against drinking associated violence. From experience, places which close at 6am have far less trouble than places which close at 2am, since in the latter example everyone leaves together and get's into fights at the bus stop.

[SbOlly]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

Perhaps it's more against drinking associated violence. From experience, places which close at 6am have far less trouble than places which close at 2am, since in the latter example everyone leaves together and get's into fights at the bus stop.

But is it truley a good night out, if you can't at the end of it, settle down at the bus stop with friends, eating kebabs, watching the local pikeys beat the living shit out of each other?

I mean, is it?

[Dante Hicks]

Well based on the fact my last night out ended up with a tramp kissing me after thinking I was a vampire (and had AIDS), I'm going to go with "no".

[Marilyn Manson]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

Perhaps it's more against drinking associated violence. From experience, places which close at 6am have far less trouble than places which close at 2am, since in the latter example everyone leaves together and get's into fights at the bus stop.

This is hardly, however, a sufficently sound case for the implementation of national policy.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Marilyn Manson

This is hardly, however, a sufficently sound case for the implementation of national policy.

Perhaps, although all evidence is ultimately anecdotal. It seems fairly common sense that early closing hours would lead to people all leaving together with accompanied hilarity.

Out of interest, which countries have relaxed their drinking regimes and then had an increase in binge drinking?

Are you for or against 24hr drinking laws btw?

[JonnyBGood]

We've had this in ireland for a while. It has made less difference in the amount of binge drinking than a small bunny rabbit named glenda holding up a sign with the words "alcohol sux" written on it.

[Evergreen]

The goverment punishes all those who aren't lightweight's kakakaka.

tbh the UK does have a drinking problem, it's time it dealt with it, and no it's not normal.

[Dante Hicks]

Originally Posted by Evergreen

The goverment punishes all those who aren't lightweight's kakakaka.

tbh the UK does have a drinking problem, it's time it dealt with it, and no it's not normal.

I know I'm looking to have a huge can of troll unleashed on my ass, but what are you taking as "normal"?

Is it normal to be white? Only an ever decreasing minority of the worlds population is you know!

[SYMM]

Originally Posted by SbOlly

How on earth do you ban pub crawls? Is it illegal to have a drink in more than one establishment on any night? Or maybe once you've entered somewhere that serves alcohol, you aren't allowed to leave unless you are escorted straight back to your hotel room.

The falaraki ban was on organised pub-crawls I believe (by the reps), though stopping drunk people from entering the premises would pretty much stop people from moving...

If I end up going out tonight, I will take £10 with me which will (after a few pints at home) get me in (£1.50), a few double--vodkas @80p before midnight, then some chips on the way home.....

[Stew]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I know I'm looking to have a huge can of troll unleashed on my ass, but what are you taking as "normal"?

Is it normal to be white? Only an ever decreasing minority of the worlds population is you know!

I actually have to agree on Sunday with this one.
No other nation seems to have the same levels of alcohol related crimes and binge drinking.
No other nation has such crap early closing laws which makes people learn to drink quickly.

I see a correlation.

[Evergreen]

Originally Posted by Dante Hicks

I know I'm looking to have a huge can of troll unleashed on my ass, but what are you taking as "normal"?

Is it normal to be white? Only an ever decreasing minority of the worlds population is you know!

We have a reputation amongst the world (brits that is) as alcoholics, as indulgent in the sins of booze.

Being in North America really opens the eye's to like how town centre's can be when you don't have all this alcohol being pushed into the society of every day life. I've met a lot of people now who are in the 16-17 age bracket when irresponsible drinking set's in for most people in the UK and a lot of people in the 18-20 just been at uni for a year or so, the differences are vast, They still drink but not so much in the great quantities of spirits, nor so commonly, they'll drink on occassions like St Patricks day, not every freaking excuse too, they work harder here and they seem genuinely happier here.

However UK is probably host to the laziest, most alcoholic people the world will grace and it's prolly going to get dismissed as a troll but I reckon people would be inclined to agree should they emigrate to somewhere more civil.

[A2]

Originally Posted by Stew

No other nation has such crap early closing laws which makes people learn to drink quickly.

In that case might 24 hour closing laws just mean that everyone drinks quicker for longer? I can only see it having a effect on a generation that hasn't grown up with the concept of "must get my drinks in before they close at 23:00"

[Stew]

Originally Posted by A2

In that case might 24 hour closing laws just mean that everyone drinks quicker for longer? I can only see it having a effect on a generation that hasn't grown up with the concept of "must get my drinks in before they close at 23:00"

Its all about the long run.*






* no this is not an invitation to quote Keynes.

[Nodrog]

If measures like this are what it takes to ensure our national health service can function adequately, they are certainly justified.

[A2]

Originally Posted by Stew

Its all about the long run.*

* no this is not an invitation to quote Keynes.

In the short term though there could be problems, unless bars phase out their happy hour promotions before the deadline and work out some way of keeping punters.


(I wouldn't dream of quoting Keynes btw, certainly not in this thread anyway. It would mean I'd have to read it first)

[Dace]

Hey dudes i thought the reason Britain has such a drink culture was because we have such absolutely ****ing shitty weather.

I believe other countries with similar weather have a similar drink culture.

I believe Finland was the same until their Government did something*.















*not sure what