Anti-Binge drinking tsar advocates binge drinking

Presumably on the basis that her Government was not receiving quite enough bad publicity in relation to alcohol fuelled yob culture, Louise Casey, the head of the Home Office anti-social behaviour unit, who reports directly to the Prime Minister, was widely reported mocking the very campaign she is responsible for promoting and advocating binge drinking to ministers.

Secretly recorded making an after dinner speech to an audience of senior civil servants, chief constables and criminal justice practitioners, Ms Casey said: “I suppose you can’t binge drink anymore because lots of people have said you can’t do it. I don’t know who bloody made that up, it’s nonsense.”

On the tape, obtained by BBC News, she said some ministers might perform better if they “turn up in the morning pissed. Doing things sober is no way to get things done,” she added.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said it was “ironic” that the official appointed to report to Tony Blair on antisocial behaviour appeared to be “an advocate of binge drinking”, and he went on to comment that perhaps this explained “why alcohol-related violent attacks are up 25% and why Labour are so keen to unleash 24-hour drinking.”

Ms Casey was appointed as director of the unit by the Prime Minister and was told to report directly to him on the issue of restoring “respect” to Britain’s streets. She is responsible for encouraging the use of antisocial behaviour orders by police and local authorities clamping down on loutish behaviour.

One of the top priorities of Mr Blair’s “respect” agenda is to reverse the tide of drunken violence blamed on binge drinkers in Britain’s city centres.

In a letter to Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury, who had raised the matter, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears explained that Ms Casey had been warned about her future conduct, and that “despite her light-hearted comments on the subject (Louise) is committed to working to reduce binge-drinking.” Ms. Blears did not explain if the binge drinking that Ms Casey was working to reduce included her own.