to think that Britain's piss-can culture is a bloody disgrace?

[madmomma]

Or am I just getting old and boring? I like a drink as much as the next person, but it seems to me that our drinking culture is just crazily out of control . I live in a pretty deprived area, so maybe that has something to do with it, but when I walk around my town centre there are so many people drinking in the day time. And I don't mean one, with lunch. People drinking with a view to carrying on through the afternoon. It just seems to be that people who drink moderately or not at all are in the minority these days and binge/heavy drinking is the norm. I'm 33 so maybe someone older would say that it's always been this way and I've just started to notice it. I think it's pretty gross really. Boring old fart?

birds that's an interesting consideration about the heart disease.
I see men (usually topless) all the time around here pushing prams and swigging beer at the same time. Maybe I'm judgy but I just hate it.

I think men can be under pressure from their peers to drink a lot. I certainly noticed it at school and university. Some of my friends could drink absolutely ridiculous amounts, more than I had realized you could drink in one go. There were drinking clubs and societies which were prestigious, and the main criteria for getting in was being able to drink a ton. Women weren't under the same pressure, and were actively discouraged from getting really wasted.

squeaky - oh, no, I wasn't accusing you of stereotyping! Sorry, I put that badly. I just meant that as a separate point, that obviously all alcoholics are not like the ones we all see out and about.

I just thought of it as I read your post, rather than thinking I disagreed with your post,if that makes sense.

"Two bottles of wine would be an average Saturday night's drinking for them, each. Surely that says something a bit alarming?"

I wouldnt find that an alarming amount. If it was on a nightly basis then maybe I would, but not as a social thing at weekend. It is only 6 glasses of wine, which over a 3 or 4 hour period really isnt all that much.

It's meant to be the most healthy if you drink moderately but also have days off, FWIW.

OK, I'll bite... I blame Alcopops and those MTV Ibiza Uncovered style of TV Programmes.

Somewhere about this time drinking to excess seemed to become mainstream, and the Ibiza Uncovered brand of holiday hedonism became the template for a good night out at home.

Also, I think that women drinking sensibly in the past had a knock on effect of curbing men drinking to excess in their company. Not a woman's job to do that, I know I know...but it probably was quite useful.

squeakytoy - you seriously don't think two bottles of wine in an evening is a lot?

I think one bottle of wine each is good going. And I don't think I'm a light weight.

I think two bottles in one evening for one person is a lot. But I am a lightweight. I could never physically drink that much.

I don't think there's much evidence women did drink 'sensibly', is there, bead?

I think it sounds genteel to drink bloody marys or sherry or halves of beer, but women did drink!

I guess I don't really understand the notion that getting drunk is, in and of itself, a fun activity. I don't drink much, but I appreciate the appeal of drinking with a meal, or alongside friends chatting in a pub where the social interaction is the focus and the booze is the lubricant, or drinking and going out dancing. That computes. But gathering in the street or park with the sole aim of getting blotto just baffles me.

Dh took dd wild camping last night. Walking back to the car they saw a group of lads walking to a local beauty spot, with 4 litres of strong white cider each. At 9.30am. Wtf?

I can drink and I would be shit faced after two bottles to myself unless I did it over many more hours than three.

Nope, I wouldnt say it was a lot. It depends on the period of time it was drank over. 4-5 hours fine.. but if it was necked down in under 2 hours then I would say that was silly and unnecessary.

YABU booze consumption is the only way to wipe out the rot and utterly horrible reality of life in this godforsaken twatting country we laughingly call England.

Raises glass of

I don't think much has changed, except we're all older and more aware of what others are doing! When I was in Uni, I saw students heading to the pub at 10 when it opened. And this wasn't the food too pub, it was strictly booze. Especially if there was a game on.

From what I have read, drinking is more likely to kill you because other dangers, like childbirth, communicable disease, smoking, heart attacks and accidents and injuries are less likely to kill you!

I don't drink, I don't like the taste or effect.

Drunk people are so boring when you are sober I sometimes wish I liked it more as social occasions can be really tedious.

When we were 15ish we used to go to our local pub. Because we were under 18 we had to behave and not draw attention to ourselves, so we actually learnt to drink sensibly - one or two. I am sure the landlord knew jolly well we were all underage, but in those days (nearly 40 years ago) things were more relaxed and as long as we did behave ourselves, a blind eye was turned.

I'm not entirely convinced that tightening up the application of the drinking laws has helped enormously. When and how do teens learn how much is enough? That's a genuine question, btw, as dd is 12 now so we are looking at the possibility of her quaffing cider in the park, and frankly, I'd rather she was in the pub having a couple under the constraint of not drawing too much attention to herself.

Up until the 80's, it was quite rare for groups of women to go out drinking, and almost unheard of for them to go out drinking mid-week at all. Drinking was a "mans" thing.

Generally women only went out to the pub if they went with their husband/boyfriend, and would rarely get hammered drunk.

I would say though, it is only in recent years that drinking shots have become almost a standard practice on nights out, and that is where a lot of the problems start. Rather than pacing themselves, people are knocking back slammers, sambucas, etc, as well as their usual drinks, and then spend the rest of the night staggering around or puking up, with little control of themselves.

two bottles of wine is about 18 units, well over a woman's weekly allowance.

I find the drinking culture and normalcy of it pretty shocking. In New York City, you might see vomit on the pavement or a drunk person on the street once a year - after St. Patrick's Day. Here it is nothing at unusual any day of the week.

I took the baby to a&e on Friday night/Sat morning. I was so shocked! I've had my moments when I've had one too many but I have never ever come near to the state some most of the young women were in in there. It made me that my pfb and psb DDs will one day go out & get pissed and set me thinking about how I can help them do so sensibly!

squeaky - I agree women didn't used to go out to drink, but I think they still drank. I was looking at what seems 'normal' and my gran - who would have been shocked at the idea she drank too much - would think that a bloody mary from 11am was fine - and a glass of wine at lunch - and sherry in the afternoon - and a pre-dinner aperetif ... and so on. Now, she did not much like alcohol so never drank more than one of those options, but she certainly knew people who took advantage of the fact that there were all of those socially sanctioned options to drink through the day.

I suspect people like that just hid their drinking more, and now that we have a different culture we would notice that more.

I dont drink at all. Never have really bar one or two tastes (as in mouthfuls !) when i was much much younger, i simply dont want to and yet peopleact as though im clearly insane. I just dont like the taste of the drinnks i have tried so why would i keep trying?!.

So many people tell me that i just need to drink more often to get used to the taste which seems very odd to me like telling someone who doesnt like cheese to go out and buy a massive block of it until they like it. I have 5 children if they decide they like alcohol - fine but equally i hope they also understand its ok NOT to drink it! It seems unacceptable to a large number of people.

I am 30 soon and i dont feel like my life is at all lacking in anything because of not drinking

Crap,, I am not sure where this myth that British people drink more has come from,, they don't,,, continentals drink far more and smoke like chimneys but they don't behave like some British people do when drunk..

If a person acts like a twat when drunk its because they are a twatvwhen sober!! Alcohol is no excuse.

Policing on the continent is far tougher, my ds was on lads holiday in Greece, all got roudy and drunk, ( yes awful) but not nasty. Greek police just got in there with batons in the legs, lads ran for hotel, incident over, lesson learned, serve right IMO...

Also I belive that drunkenness was rife in previous times, Victorian and ' during the war' people have always drunk but it's the tolerance of disgusting behaviour that has changed...

Now I sound like my mom!! Help!!

Drinking in public and drinking are two different things.

(Some) People have always had alcohol consumption as a family back ground.

My best mate is from an Irish family - shit! could they all drink! men, women - they were the best parties when we were growing up in the 70's. but drink in public? not a chance. And none of the men went to the pub either - that would have been a very working class thing to do back then, and they were most certainly not working class

On the other hand, my parents came from a heavy drinking culture but both were teetotal, ok not teetotal but a sherry at Christmas hardly counted. And it was only a sherry at Christmas. Oddly they always had a full booze cabinet "just in case of visitors".

But then DH is from a working class background, neither of his parents drank - but he was a typical 80's lad and liked a bevvy. But these days he can take it or leave it - which is a bonus really, coz he always drives so I can have a sherbet or three

I like a drink, but it wouldn't bother me if we suddenly had prohibition

I'm Southern European and I grew up watching everyone have at least one glass of wine with meals (lunch and dinner), an aperitif and probably a digestive after dinner. And they were still sober

Probably because it was accompanied with copious amounts of food all the time

It was really rare to witness any "binge-drinking" episodes like I see in the UK and in Australia. It never ceases to amaze me how determined people are to make sure you drink as much as them.

I find it annoying having to deal with middle aged colleagues acting like insecure teenagers who can only have fun if they pass out before happy hour is over. Tedious.