When did drink driving become socially unacceptable?

[Globetrote]

Like the title says - when in the UK did it become unacceptable from a moral and social viewpoint? I see online that the first law with alcohol legal limits was introduced in 1967, but the first public campaign was earlier in 1964 and aimed at housewives to pressurise their husbands not to drink drive.

The reason I ask is this - I was born in another country with similar timeframes for drink driving laws/campaign, but my father regularly drove drunk. I remember it clearly in the 1980s when I was a child being petrified, car often swerving across lanes and he nearly passed out at the wheel, but he never got caught until about 20 years ago when he lost his license for 6 months (again, not in the UK/EU). He thought the it was hilarious to have to get the bus for 6 months, and had no shame.

I was talking to a friend and she said ‘oh everyone was drunk driving in the 80’s, you shouldn’t be bothered about it as it wasn’t just you.’

I knew what he was doing was wrong, I remember the public campaigns in my country, and I hear that they had similar here in England. Did people just not give a shit back then? When did attitudes start to change?

My father and I are NC now for many reasons, but it makes me angry how he played roulette with my life and that of others on the road and has no conscience about it - and then my friend just discounted my feelings about it like it was all nonsense and no big deal.

(parents were divorced and DM never knew until years later).

My parents regularly went to BBQs/parties in the 70s and 80s and merrily drank all afternoon and early evening - then had a blazing row about who was driving home before throwing 3 of us DC into the car and heading off, quarrelling all the way.

They were respectable people and most of their friends did the same. It was rural, and you did not expect to see a police car. There was little traffic on the road. They weren't generally completely pissed, but they would certainly have been well over the limit if breathalysed.

I passed my test in 1984 and didn't drink and drive - although friends did. I was afraid of being caught and losing my licence which I needed to get to work. Many of the crowd I hung out with in the mid to late 80s had lost their licence for a year at some point, having been breathalysed, so there was an obviously increasing push by the authorities to move drunks off the road.

Why do you think it's acceptable in the North??? 🤔

Around 1988 I remember a cousins wedding and mini breath analysers being mentioned. The family members was police so reckon it was not ok back then.

1990s I reckon. They started really cracking down on it in the 80s but a lot of people still saw that as unfair/unreasonable. My dad lost his licence for a few months for it in the early 80s. I'd say by mid/late 90s attitudes were quite different and it was no longer something most people thought you could try and get away with.

So you think it's only the enlightened ,London and the South East who don't drink and drive ?
What do you imagine those of us on the North are all driving around pissed?

My friends and I have always found it unacceptable - so, from the late 1970s.

It was kicking in in the early 70s but the majority were died in the wool 'it's not affecting me'. Took time for it to percolate through as younger people came along. Even in the early eighties we were doing designated driver.

Early 1990’s.
I started working in the 80’s and it was expected that after work, at the end of the working week, everyone went to the pub for a drink. You were thought of as odd if you didn’t. This could continue until the very early hours and then they would drive home. I clearly remember this going on until 93ish.

Definitely unacceptable by the time I started driving in 2000. I can remember my friend telling us about refusing to get in her uncle’s car because he was drunk in the late 80s and everyone including her parents thinking it was hilarious.

For god's sake really??! Is that what people think. North = degenerate foolhardy folks?

I passed my test in early 2000s and even as silly teens it was NEVER acceptable to “drink drive”. 1 drink was the limit and we’d have all been appalled if someone reached for their car keys after that and would have stopped them.
My mum is a recovering alcoholic (stopped drinking about 10 years ago) and even she said she wouldn’t drive a car drunk. I do believe her because I don’t ever remember being frightened in the car with her and she only stopped drinking after I was in my 20s and was quite attuned to when she’d had a drink… she just never let me go anywhere she’d have to drive to pick me up after lunchtime. I’m in my 30s so that means certainly in my lifetime it hasn’t been acceptable.

Circa 1990.

the welsh and Scottish are also very anti drink driving

I remember taking someone‘s keys off them in the pub because they could barely stand. I was chastised by the entire pub! This was 2008.

It still goes on a lot in locals, especially semi-rurally. It’s two miles to my next village, which has at least 6 pubs on the high street. It’s not accessible on foot but it’s £20 in a taxi.

I can remember a lot of people drinking and driving during the 70s and 80s (even my late Ddad unfortunately 😟). I think from the 90s onwards it started becoming more socially unacceptable,but having said that,I think there are still some people around who do it regularly. Thankfully,all the people that I know won't have even one drink if they are driving.

I have very vivid memories of my parents having parties or friends over in the late 70s/early 80s, and everyone drinking and driving home. We'd always go to drinks with family friends on Christmas day and it was incredibly rare for anyone to not drink. I passed my test in 1983 and yes, on occasion, I'd drive back from a rural pub having had a couple of beers, but then I moved to London and didn't drive for years, and when I came back to the countryside, I was far too scared.

I think you have shot yourself in the foot there @misszebra

All you have done is confirm the stereotype that anyone living within the M25 thinks that anyone living in the North of the UK or to the West of Swindon is a Neanderthal

What do you hope to achieve by writing such a goady and ignorant post?
Scotland has stricter drink driving laws than England.

My grandmother was knocked down by a drunken driver in 1959. Leg partially severed and she spent 15 months in hospital. Had an artificial leg but still lived to 90 (1998)I've always been anti drink driving and in Scotland it's not worth even one now.

yes and if you read my other post you will see where I said drink driving is much less accepted in Scotland and Wales.

I agree with a PP that kids weren't generally in pubs - pubs were for adults. But yes after parties and family events you'd have to get the kids home so into the car they went. I don't remember being affected by it as such, or any of the other parenting norms from the 70s/80s that would be considered unacceptable now. It was all normalised at the time. Different things are normalised now. I'm sorry that you were upset by your dad's driving when you were a child, OP. It's sounds like you are struggling to come to terms with your childhood experiences.

Mid 80s I reckon.

Please explain why you think those of us in the North condone drink driving??

My Dad was in his 40s in the 1990s and I remember he would only have 1 x shandy if he was driving. Any more and my mum would drive

I don't know why some of you do, it is just an observation

So you have travelled extensively around the North of England ,to confidently proclaim we like to drink and drive in the North have you ?