For all you brits in bars...

orbison11

greetings

i just saw a news clip here in vancouver re the 'no close' laws and i noticed people smoking in the bars...is that so? or just a few? or just designated spots.

thanks orbi

Last night the law changed so that alcohol can now be sold 24 hours a day. Establishments must apply for a licence, and it seems that only a few places have applied to be open for the full 24 hours but many bars clubs shops and supermarkets have applied to extend their licencing hours.

The whole country appear to be against it, especially police, hospital staff and paramedics.

The pro argument seems to be that thousands of drunk people will not all be ejected onto the city streets at 2am in the morning any more, as different establishments closing hours will be staggered, so there are likely to be less drunken brawls and fights for taxis home etc.

The against arguments are that the drunken brawling can now last all night long. And its pretty bad in every town and city in the UK. There is a real drinking culture. Everyone between the age of 15 and 35 (it can appear like that anyway) goes out on a friday and saturday night to get pissed. Its like marauding packs of sex starved animals, trolling up and down the main streets shrieking, shouting, fighting, vomiting, pissing in doorways and smashing things along the way. (im honestly not exaggarating - I used to live on the route home from town and 6 to 8 cars got either their windscreen smashed or their wing mirror smashed off - EVERY Friday and Saturday. And I live in a nice town).

riko

I've got to agree with katiekitten, the drinking culture over here can be really stupid and all these extended licencing laws are going to do, is leave the window of opportunity for fighting, vomiting, etc, even wider open. A lot of people are going to abuse this and the strain on hospital staff is going to be immense.

Where's the logic? 'I know, we'll stop this binge-drinking culture by extending pub opening times...' Yeah it's just like the continent, ain't it?

Abaddon

orbison

i noticed people smoking in the bars...is that so? or just a few? or just designated spots.

I think you're asking if we can smoke in bars in England. Yes, almost everywhere, but they are talking about nanny-state legislation in the next few years to ban it in all licensed extablishments that serve food.

On the change in licensing laws, havin holidayed in Europe with my family quite a bit, and now living in Holland, I've been laughing myselkf silly at the parochial 'it's the end of the world as we know it' Cassandra's prophecying the end of society due to allowing extensions to drinking hours.

I am sure there will be an adjustment period. When morons who think that because they CAN stay out drinking until 4am on a Monday morning they SHOULD do this lose their jobs, things will go back to normal, except without making everyone buy three drinks at 10.50pm, consume them in the next 20 minutes, and then all walk home at 11.20pm, which is what causes the biggest problems, IMO.

But as bars stay open more-or-less until the owner feels like closing here, and society hasn't collapsed (even though you can buy cannabis in shops and even though prostitution is legal), I don't think British society will end as some say.

LittleToe

Like Gyles, I'm not against it.

I have to say that I think we should see a culture-shift over the next few years. Folks can drink as much as they like and then go home. When will that be? Whenever they feel like it.

Without a set timetable (due to closing hours) it will likely diffuse peoples' habits, perhaps causing them to rethink whether or not they really want to be in the bar all night.

Sure there will be short-term abuse, but that's unlikely to last. Sure some will still be silly, but I suspect some will drop out of that practice.

katiekitten

Im quite sure society wont end, but if you live near pubs or on the route home from pubs you were at least guaranteed you could get to sleep after 2am. I think it will just extend the period of anti social behaviour from a few hours, to all night long.

Its really not much fun waiting for all those drunks to get home, they ALWAYS shout as loud as they can all the way home. I have gone out several times in the night and asked groups of men to (a) not piss on my front door and (b) please talk in an ordinary voice rather than shouting. I have experienced 10 acts of vandalism to my car and my mums car, and 12 that I know of to the neighbours cars. And like I said before I like in quite a nice area, not the rough end of town. Just happen to be on the flight path to and from 3 pubs.

riko

Sure there will be short-term abuse, but that's unlikely to last. Sure some will still be silly, but I suspect some will drop out of that practice

yeah that's what everyone's hoping, it's just waiting to see how long this abuse lasts. Hopefully people will learn moderation when they realise they don't need to drink as much as they can in a short period of time, just wonder how long it'll take this fact to sink in?

Abaddon

katie Im quite sure society wont end, but if you live near pubs or on the route home from pubs you were at least guaranteed you could get to sleep after 2am. I think it will just extend the period of anti social behaviour from a few hours, to all night long. Mmmm.. weekends, yes, in major entertainment zones. But if you live in an entertainment district that is arguably tough luck; it's like moving near to an airport - go ahead, but don't complain about the noise. After the adjustment period; people will still have to be at work at the same time as normal, and won't develop magical powers to allow them to have les sleep. Those who can't control themselves will quite soon stop going out as they will lose their jobs and not be able to afford to go out.

Its really not much fun waiting for all those drunks to get home, they ALWAYS shout as loud as they can all the way home. I have gone out several times in the night and asked groups of men to (a) not piss on my front door and (b) please talk in an ordinary voice rather than shouting.

Understood and respected. I do think that the 'trickle' typically between 11pm and 1am that will replace the 'flood' at 11pm will be less noisey as crowd density will be lower, and the more people there are the noisier they get (not proportional to numbers, kind of a log effect). I have experienced 10 acts of vandalism to my car and my mums car, and 12 that I know of to the neighbours cars. And like I said before I like in quite a nice area, not the rough end of town. Just happen to be on the flight path to and from 3 pubs. That's really miserable. Hopefully the end of "three or four drinks in quick succsession" generated by the old laws will mean people will be less pissed (and less likely to be anti-social), and be in smaller groups? Here's hoping. Maybe it'll be one of these 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' things. You can show very reasonably that murders in the USA have ALWAYS been higher, even when gun control and possesion was similar. So 'guns don't kill people, American's kill people disproportionately'. Maybe 'British licensing laws don't cause binge drinking, British people are terrible with alcohol'!

MAS*H

Personally I doubt much will change, but if anything, things might get a little worse. The fact is pubs and clubs will still close at the same times roughly - occasionally when the England football is playing a match at 03:00 BST/GMT in some far off distant land a few pubs might stay open with there special licence.

I don't think the binge drinking is anything to do with closing time... I think it's more to do with the fact we're stupid - we love drinking, the more exotic the beverage the better. The easiest way to stop people drinking too much - is too slap on even bigger taxes on Alcohol - then we'd all run out of money quicker. Education might work, but it's doubtful.

Besides, us brits have to get really drunk when we go out, so we don't feel the cold on the walk home... It's the law in the UK, when you go out for an evening anyone under the age of 35 is not allowed to wear anything other than jeans and shirt. Ask anyone, it's true.

riko

around here we have a thing called the 'geordie beer coat'

For all you brits in bars...

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