"We should turn a blind eye to underage drinking in pubs"

[Bogeyface]

As said last night by an old mate of ours who has been running pubs since Noah was a boy.

He backed this up by saying that people my age (40 eek!) snuck into pubs with either our fake ID or too much make up and a veneer of confidence, and learned how to drink. We learned how to behave in pubs when we were too poor to get plastered, we learned what alcohol did to us, and by the time we were 18 it was nothing new. He said he preferred to have a few 15/16 year olds having a pint that lasted all night than what he has now which is brand new legal drinkers absolutely hammering it and getting totally off their faces every weekend. He blames the clamp down on underage drinking for a lot of the binge drinking that goes on now, because kids at 18 have more money and freedom than those a couple of years younger, often they are away at Uni, so have nothing stopping them from getting battered.

My first reaction was "Dont talk crap!" but then I thought about it, and I think that he may have a point. I know a lot of parents who dont allow their children to drink at home until 18, which mystifies the whole thing and again, doesnt allow them to learn in a safe environment.

AIBU to think that he may be right in that our underage sneaking into pubs stopped us from ending up in the paper with our knickers around our ankles in a puddle of our own piss?

[AvaCrowder]

I was going to say what peachgirl has.

In Switzerland there is no binge drinking culture, apart from the Brits. 16 year olds can have beer or wine in pubs, but you have to be 18 to have spirits. Having said that the 16 year olds can buy cheap cider, beer and wine at the supermarkets and sit on a park bench, they don't as far as I can see. They prefer the marijuana.
I was in a bar/coffee shop earlier today and a gin and tonic was over £10, that is quite prohibitive.

Give me a pub with carpets and a real fire, and maybe a couple of dogs, and I'm happy.

[SistersOfPercy]

I agree.
The landlord of my favorite haunt helped me revise sine GCSE maths one quiet Tuesday night. I failed, but probably not his fault

In those days we drank socially and respectfully in a room of mixed ages and if we didn't behave we were out, never to darken the doors under age again.
Teenagers today hiding their bottles of wkd as they sit in the park makes no sense to me at all. It seems more like alcohol for alcohols sake rather than a social stick with mates.