There is a plethora of tv shows on SKY (and a few on Terrestrial, one of which I am watching right now - Drunk and Dangerous) which film the early hours on britain’s streets when pubs and clubs close.
It seems to demonstrate that the drunk british youth is a total dickhead. Maybe they are a minority but they make me ashamed of my country of origin. Why does excessive alcohol turn these people into such annoying wankers? It doesn’t do that to me. I get more docile and cooporative when I’ve drank too much.
My working hours mean I walk home just after 12am. Definitely no shortage of annoying twats about (male and female).
I recall doing 100 pushups in the middle of a busy road with my buddy after pub. So that just goes to show you. Mixed in with the annoying British wankers are a couple americans as well.
wouldn’t ya know, the second car to come over the hill was a bobbie. She didn’t think it was that funny. She did compliment us on our state of fitness though.
I have nothing against people getting drunk and doing odd things. It’s the hyper-agressive extremely obnoxious way that so many young people in britain behave on the streets after closing time. Especially when it comes to cooperating with the Police. Why ruin an evening of fun for themselves and others by being a dickhead at the end of it?
Last one of these I watched the entire programme consisted of police running about the town centre picking up after overgrown, crying, fighting, falling over, squabbling, wailing, pissed out their tiny minds children. They may have all been over 18 (perhaps) but they acted like cross 3 year olds.
If they’re stupid enough to get themselves in such a state that they can’t manage to get in a taxi and go home without making a drama out of it, then I say leave them to it. Let them beat each other senseless. The police can then go do something useful instead of looking out for these half wits.
And that’s before you even consider the warzone that the average hospital casualty is at the same time. Don’t get me started on that.
Pretty much everyone becomes obnoxious when very drunk. The problem is the 11.00 throwing out time, that ensures all the obnoxiously drunk people are out on the street at the same time. Hopefully the new licensing laws will stop this ‘rush hour’ of drunken louts.
Fallen for Labour’s lies on this much? All it’ll do is ensure all the obnoxiously drunk morons are even more obnoxiously drunk than normal and all out on the street at a slightly later time.
It’s times like this I fear for what Britain is becoming. Then I remember I’m doing my damnedest to get away anyway and redouble my efforts.
Not labour lies, just the observation of the differnce between europe usa and uk. In UK people often force down a few pints before closing, means they leave on a high alcohol level. In us if you feel very druk, you can stay a while longer at the bar without being thrown out (at least to 2 am arround here). There just doesn’t seem to be that last orders rush that you get in UK, also it is easier for those who want to avoid possible risky situations. Since in UK you really don’t want to be on the streets at 11.05 so if you are sensible you are forced to leave the pub early enough to avoid the risk of the 11.05 crowd. In US you can nearly always wait till everyone else has gone home, or leave early at 12.00 for instance and avoid too much drunkeness on the streets.
Seriously there was always a few fights happening on the way home from Eton to Windsor at just past 11 pm whenever I went out drinking with friends. I just don’t see anything like that in California.
Well, it’s probably not going to make you happy, but in my summer studying in the UK, us americans were astounded at the number of Brits who were:
[ul]
[li]vomiting violently in the gutters, on sides of buildings, and on each other[/li][li]picking fights and beating the snot out of each other[/li][li]stone-cold passed out in the gutters[/li][li]pissing on the sides of buildings, usually in alleys, sometimes not[/li][/ul]
We were aghast! If you’re so drunk that you’re vomiting violently on the sidewalk, “paralytic” (as a British friend described it) lying on the sidewalk, fighting in public, or urinating in public, and you’ll get your ass at least cited if you’re not drunk, and probably hauled downtown to the drunk-tank if you are.
Yet, in Oxford anyway, it seemed like no big deal. This wasn’t always at 2 pm when the dance clubs shut. A fair amount of it went on at 11 when the pubs shut.
I’m not sure I really understand what you’re getting at. If the sensible people are leaving before 11.05, then they’ll be leaving before the new chucking out times too. The problem that the government and a lot of 24 hour drinking advocatres don’t seem willing to take into account is that those pubs applying for the late licenses are all in competition with each other. To keep their patrons and remain in competition, all pubs will need to match their rivals opening hours, so most areas will just end up with everyone out on the streets at the same time, that time just being later than it is now. With all those on the streets having had a lot more drinking time, they’ll be liable to cause even more trouble than they are at the present.
The other problem is the inherent attitude to drinking that seems to be present in a lot of Brits. The whole trying to squeeze extra pints in before closing time thing isn’t present in other countries because of their more lax opening hours. However, I don’t believe for a moment that that attitude will disappear with the new laws because it is so ingrained. After all, ODM’s abroad do the same as they do at home. Just witness any England football “fans” during a World Cup. The ODM’s will still be squeezing them in during last orders whether they have to leave at 11 or at 3.
YMObviouslyVs, but I guess I’m just cynical like that.
I think this has more to do with it than the opening hours. Britain (and Ireland as well) has an unhealthy drinking culture, in which drinking for the sole purpose of getting paralytic seems to be the norm. I think tackling this attitude would have a much greater effect than any change in drinking hours.
Mind you, I have absolutely no idea how to go about it.
There are a few things at play here. Your average young British male is much more aggressive than his continental (or American) counterpart. I have no idea why this is, but I do know it’s true - after all I was one once (and I was a right herbert too). Add alcohol and you get punch-ups.
Secondly the 11pm thing is a root cause of a lot of the problems - people drink against the clock, and then all pile out onto the streets looking for something or someone to do.
Town centres haven’t done themselves any favours either by putting all these Yates’ type huge pubs in concentrated areas, and the pubs pricing structure encourages people to bang down either bottled strong lager or shorts.
I think that getting rid of the 11 o’clock chucking out will help - but the first few months will be mayhem.
Not only that but prices encourage drinking alcohol over their non-alcoholic alternatives. I don’t, or at least try not to, drink when I go out with flatmates now just because I have only bad experiences with family and friends on alcohol. The only problem is unless I want to drink water all night I have to pay 50%-100% more than for their cheaper alcoholic drinks.
Kids do seem to want to drink for the sake of drinking these days and I use the word “kid” simply because there are those “adults” that drink sensibly and then there are the “kids” who end up in gutters covered in their own vomit with a black eye or two (girls as well as boys) on a weekly basis!
It’s either the end of civilisation or a cry for help. Fuck.
They spread it to the colonies too. Kiwis and Aussies are no better.
Oh and they can also be found puking in British/European/Asian streets (it’s our rite of passage )
My mother has a Swiss visitor at the moment who was horrified by the late night Auckland larrikins. Evidently Switzerland is almost saintly and there are no teenagers puking.
This is so true. And add in the fact that a significant minority consider a good fight an essential part of the evening. In my eyes a large segment of UK male youth seem to glory in being drunken thugs - it’s part of their identity. All the expansion in drinking hours will lead to is increased alcohol abuse and more violence. The British in general have an unhealthy attitude to alcohol and unless that is changed the New Labour hopes for a continental style culture is pissing in the wind and no doubt pocketing campaign contributions from the alcohol industries.
Maybe, maybe not. It’s certainly true that fighting is a part of the british male youth (and the bints can get quite lairy after a few breezers too). However what is also a contributing factor is that all these huge beer-o-dromes expel them onto the street at the same time, so the opportunity for “you lookin’ at me?” type antics is greater.
If this was staggered then maybe things would improve. Only time will tell, but my instict is that people will go wild at first, and then calm down and we will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Only assuming that everyone stays til closing time, regardless of how late it is. I’m not sure that’s a reasonable assumption. The reason there’s such a problem with the 11pm closing is that it’s so early that everyone gets kicked out when the pub is practically at its busiest, and when people don’t feel like they’ve actually finished their night out. But if a bar stays open til 3am, say, then all of a sudden you’re just there for as long as you feel like, rather than having to get your drinking in before a set time and then find something else to do.
I’m sure there will be continue to be alcohol abuse and idiots, but I don’t see that the 11pm closing time helps at all, and I also don’t see the need to put a crimp on the lives of the majority who can drink perfectly responsibly. I think owl is right to say that the transition will probably be a bit nasty, giving fuel to the inevitable Daily Mail chuntering, but that things will be absolutely no worse in the long run.
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