New Labour and Alcohol:

A personal view by Derek Rutherford

Reacting to UEFA's threat to ban the English team from the European Cup if English soccer fans continued their drunken violence, Mr Blair, Prime Minister, said, "Hopefully this will bring to their senses anyone who threatens to continue the mindless thuggery that has brought such shame to the country". But the man who said he would be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime" said nothing about one of the main causes of the thuggery, 'alcohol'. Mr Blair heads a government which believes that to deal with the problem of alcohol we should have the opportunity to drink around the clock.

The English throughout their history have had a problem with their use of alcohol. Boniface, the English Saint, writing from Germany in the eighth century complained of his countryman's reputation for drunkenness: "This is an evil peculiar to pagans and to our race. Neither the Franks, nor the Gauls, nor the Lombards, nor the Romans, nor the Greeks commit it." Four centuries later John of Salisbury wrote "Habits of drinking have made the English famous among all nations". Drunkenness and its ensuing anti-social behaviour is endemic in the culture of the English. This is why alcohol cannot be given a free market - politicians and governments have to understand that its consumption has to be controlled.

Our history shows that when controls are taken away, we go beserk.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, leaders of the Labour Party (Keir Hardie, Arthur Henderson) recognised the need to seriously tackle the alcohol problem if they were to improve society's conditions and the well-being of the people. In reacting to the news that New Labour wished to open the pubs for 24 hours Paul Routledge, the Mirror's Chief Political Correspondent, wrote (April 11): "I never expected a Labour Home Secretary to give me the freedom to have a sherbet whenever I feel like it. Labour, traditionally the temperance party, took a moral view born of the drunkenness that afflicted the late nineteenth century when the working classes got legless from binge drinking ..... Now New Labour has decided morality and business go hand in hand. It proposes pubs be allowed to open 24 hours a day as long as customers behave themselves. Oh what a brave new world but I don't believe it. I found my way round the licensing laws but nowhere found fellow drinkers living up to the Jack Straw rules. Nor will they now. The standard defence in magistrates' courts will be 'sorry I got drunk'. I love the idea of all day and all night drinking but I'm terrified of reality".

The effects of the hard won sobriety of the twenties and thirties lasted until the late fifties but has now disappeared. Greater availability of alcohol through more outlets; relaxed licensing laws; a sustained massive advertising campaign; and increasing sponsorship of sport by the drinks industry are responsible for the change. The aim of a growing proportion of English drinkers is to get drunk. It is fun.

The NOP poll carried out on behalf of the IAS revealed it was young people and heavy drinkers which wanted longer and longer hours to drink. It is not surprising that almost half the population knows someone who has a drinking problem.

Those getting drunk in Belgium were from all walks of life. They were professional and skilled as well as unemployed. Many were family men. The same kind of men who can cause mayhem on our streets and in the family home after a night of binge drinking.

As I write, the Sunday Times (25.06.00) reports that a sharp increase in violent crime over the past year is to be revealed in official figures. Overall a 19 per cent increase in crime in England and Wales is forecast while in some areas it will be up by over 30 per cent, at forecast. The main cause for the increase is a rise in 18 - 24 year old males committing offences. A Home Office source claims one of the main causes is alcohol.

During the 1997 General Election Mr Jack Straw, now Home Secretary, pointed out that "every year, there are almost 1.5 million victims of violent attacks committed by people under the influence of drink. Every weekend, people avoid their home and city centres for fear that they will be attacked or intimidated by drunken youths. This cannot continue".

So there is recognition that alcohol-related violence does not just occur at football events - it appears endemic in our present culture.

Five years ago Allan Milburn M.P., the present Secretary of State for Health observed:

"Everyone knows that a great deal of crime - especially violent crime - is linked to alcohol. But while we regularly see new initiatives taken to tackle crime, not one of these has made a serious attempt to address the role played by alcohol."

Yet three years into this Government no co-ordinated national strategy has been forthcoming.

What we have had is the proposal to allow twenty four hour drinking, under the guise that this will help to prevent binge drinking and give people the chance to drink 'sensibly'.

We have now had for over twenty years the message of 'safe' limits and 'sensible drinking'. Noises emanating from the Department of Health appear to confirm that this will remain the 'core' of Government strategy to deal with the problem when there is no proof it has worked. Indeed, the fact that the percentage of women drinking above the guidelines has doubled over two decades surely demonstrates that the message has failed. Five years ago the last Conservative Government increased the number of safe units one could drink - not on the grounds of the consensus of scientific evidence but by pressure from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food acting on behalf of the drinks industry (when it comes to safety MAFF has such a wonderful record on BSE!).

The majority of EU Member States Health Departments accept the WHO's European Alcohol Action Strategy to reduce overall consumption. One of the exceptions is our own Department of Health. Why are we so out of kilter with other EU health departments?

Over two years ago the Department of Transport issued a Consultation paper which said the Government was 'minded' to lower the legal BAC concentration for driving from 80 mg to 50 mg per cent. Extremely cautious Government estimates claimed that this would save 50 lives. Two and a half years later nothing has been done. In the meanwhile over 125 lives have been sacrificed. New Labour has not been prepared to enhance the effectiveness of what was one of Old Labour's greatest life-saving measures.

What impression does this leave about Government policy? It would appear that three Departments of State, which should have as their prime concern the security, safety, health and well being of the people, are more concerned with vested commercial interests and their profits.

Both Mr Blair and Mr Straw need to realise that meteing out tougher punishment to offenders is not enough. Preventing crime is also important. Since there is good evidence that there is a relationship between total alcohol consumption and crime - if one goes up the other follows - the Government has to tackle overall alcohol consumption. They should heed Winston Churchill's advice:

"You cannot make a country sober by Act of Parliament but what you can do by Act of Parliament is to give the people the power to make themselves sober."

Twelve years ago Paul Johnson in the Daily Telegraph commenting on Conservative Government said:

"I am beginning to ask is it Government policy to take Britain down Hogarth's Gin Lane again?" New Labour seems determined to travel this road unless, to paraphrase Mr Blair, the Government is prepared to tackle seriously one of the root causes of our social problems: Alcohol, Alcohol, Alcohol!

Attempting to clear up the streets with policies based on wishful thinking will not alleviate the mayhem caused by alcohol in the home and in our Accident and Emergency Departments. Populist headlines about on-the-spot fines for drunken yobs ring hollow when these are designed solely to serve the purposes of a government which rejects any thought of a reduction in per capita alcohol consumption and is hell-bent on encouraging 24-hour drinking. The report prepared for the European Union in 1998, Alcohol Problems in the Family, showed that at least 4.5 million and possibly as many as 7.7 million children were living in families adversely affected by alcohol. And this is just one aspect of the problem!

The government cannot pretend to have a coherent alcohol policy until it is demonstrably no longer in cahoots with the drink industry.