Temperence old and new

At a time when alcohol consumption and the problems associated with drinking have risen up the political agenda and come frequently to dominate the news headlines, historian Virginia Berridge has examined the history of temperance and concludes that the history of temperance offers many options for the present and the future.

In a report commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Professor Berridge suggests that despite the image of temperance as a rigid and moralistic movement aiming at total abstinence and with little relevance to the present, in reality temperance had a more varied agenda, including the idea of progressive restriction and modification of drinking.

Temperance history, Professor Berridge says, shows that the issue of cultural change is central. Temperance helped change drinking culture but also built on more general social change. Such cultural change can be achieved in society through avenues like the media, which have changed their attitude to alcohol.

Professor Berridge also identifies other strong themes of temperance history having direct relevance for today.

• The local dimension was important for temperance, and current licensing reform offers local government and local action opportunities which temperance reformers fought for in the 1880s.

• Women’s changed role in society and greater independence has been under- or misused in the current debate on alcohol by comparison with women’s past role in relation to alcohol misuse.

• The role of religion in achieving cultural change in a multicultural society is also currently underused by comparison with the position religion held in relation to drink in the past.

• Scientific messages are unclear and alliances with criminal justice interests could be more firmly established. An ‘advocacy coalition’ could have greater impact.

• Better public messages are needed, as in the nineteenth century. These could involve a range of drinking options, including abstinence.

• Political division on the drink issue may develop through licensing as it did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There will be, and are, opportunities for external coalitions to influence developments.

• Temperance interests in the past worked with sections of the drinks trade to achieve moderate reform, and new alliances might be possible in the present, given the changing role of the industry.

• The history of allied policy areas like smoking, where policy has moved through different stages and cultural change has been achieved, offers a model for possible change for alcohol.