to think the binge drinking culture is a national disgrace?

[Carrierpenguin]

I don't go on many nights out but when I do I see grown adults vomiting in the streets, last week I saw an adult man vomit over himself and the platform whilst staggering for a 9pm train, his also drunk friend laughed I find all this behaviour disgusting and unacceptable, someone has to clear up after these people (poor cleaner) and I read on BBC website it costs £21 billion per year to emergency services and a&e.

So someone with a heart attack should have to compete with a drunken fool on a night out? Qualified doctors have to treat people who chose to drink a litre of vodka for a laugh after work with their friends? Police have to break up drunken street fights whilst someone else gets burgled?

I don't have the answer, but I find the binge drinking culture disgusting, perhaps there could be another advertising campaign to show how revolting and antisocial it is (I think there was one a few years ago). As a society we seem to be too accepting of this irresponsible behaviour?

[livingzuid]

YANBU. It is a national disgrace. 12 years of living and working in London was even worse imo to see completely shit faced people after work in the City Monday - Friday and then again at the weekend.

4 years now of living in The Netherlands has convinced me even further that the UK has a very unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Binge drinking does of course occur, and underage, but it is most definitely not a regular occurrence for many. I feel quite threatened every time I come back to the UK and won't go out much in the evening any more.

[Babycham1979]

OP, in answer to your reference to the alleged total cost of binge drinking, that £21 billion is matched by the contribution to state coffers from alcohol duty and VAT. This figure does not take into account the hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in corporation and income tax that come from the wholesale and retail alcohol industry.

The kind of binge drinking you describe is grim and an embarrassment, but it doesn't represent the whole country. Maybe it's a characteristic of the culture where you live? I'd be hard pushed to find anywhere like you describe in inner London to be honest, except maybe the worst tourist spots around Leicester Square, and even when I lived in Manchester, that kind of behaviour was rare.

DrSeuss, funny you should reference Italy, as the last time I was there was Rome on NYE. Along with horrific overcrowding that crushed people to the point of hospitalisation (and indifferent police), my abiding memory is of young Italian men drinking profusely, singing fascist anthems and throwing fireworks and bottles at people. Basically, the kind of behaviour that went out with 80s football hooliganism in Britain.

I've also seen extreme drunkeness of the kind you describe at Oktoberfest, in Amsterdam and Stockholm. It's not a British disease, there are twats everywhere, our media just happens to focus more on the behaviour of a residuum of pricks in our town centres.

[HopeClearwater]

Hang about in any A&E - it doesn't have to be a Friday or Saturday night - and you will soon see the effects of heavy drinking

[SpringBreaker]

Peoples drinking habits have changed so much in the last two decades.

I know very few women now who drink lager. They drink wine or spirits. So the drinks get downed more quickly and are a lot stronger.

I also think the current trend to do shots is very much a factor in the mess that so many people get themselves into.

I like going out, I enjoy getting a little bit drunk, but not to the point of vomiting, falling over, not remembering the end of the night, or making a complete twat of myself. Unfortunately every time I have gone out recently I seem to be surrounded by people who think that is an obligatory part of going out, and it just ruins my night.

I would much rather stay at home with a few friends, and have a drink in comfort, and it is also so much cheaper.

[Babycham1979]

Yes Hope; and the effects of smoking, running, cycling, old age, pollution, inactivity... the list is endless. I'm afraid this is a part of our Northern European culture and always has been. It's also been the source of great culture, innovation, creativity and productivity. The sooner we stop hand-wringing about puritanical trivialities and get on with worrying about dealing with important things like poverty, war, starvation, torture etc the better.

[TheWitTank]

YANBU. It is an absolute disgrace and embarrassment. Walking around any busy town/city centre on a Friday or Saturday night is a minefield of people vomiting, pissing, shitting in the street (!!), fighting, screaming and shouting, passing out and making idiots out of themselves. How any of this is enjoyable to the people doing it is beyond me. The hangovers alone must be diabolical, let alone the cost and detriment to your health. I gave up drinking 3 years ago (I didn't really drink anyway) and I won't touch a drop again. It's a huge issue in this country that most people don't take seriously at all.

[WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo]

None of you ever made a mistake?
When I was 18 and in my first year at university (Med student so hardly the dregs of society) I got drunk on a bottle of Southern Comfort. I drank too much, too quickly and I didn't know how to handle it. I was very, very ill and learned a valuable lesson.
No one else?

[happybubblebrain]

Is that still going on? It's years & years since I went out at night and when I did the city centre was like a ghost town. I think if people want to occasionally go out and let their hair down then they should be able to, England isn't the only place people get drunk, I've seen much worse elsewhere.

[fatlazymummy]

People aren't doing it 'by mistake' and they're not doing it occassionally. They're doing it deliberately, and as a regular event.

[IrishBloodEnglishHeart]

It is precisely because the drinks industry is such a big part of our economy that the governments alcohol policy and approach to taxing alcohol is so weighted in the industry's favour. IMO it is big booze companies who should be footing the bill for the pressure on A&E caused by drunkeness.

Alcohol is a drug, it is more harmful than certain illegal class A drugs, this is something the governments own experts have said and the government has roundly ignored.

[Hatespiders]

It can't be denied that the Government pulls in a gigantic amount of revenue from tax on alcohol. They have no real incentive to change things.

I've often been to Midnight Christmas Eve Service at Norwich Cathedral, and when the great West door is opened and the Bishop shouts "Christ is born!" dozens of drunks in the street shout back "Fuck off, you wanker!" Getting back to the car is a nightmare at that time of night with the mayhem going on all around.

(Have to say though, the drunks shouting at the Bishop does make me giggle a bit. It's very Monty Python!)

[Bunbaker]

"None of you ever made a mistake?"

Of course I did, but not at this level. I got horrifically drunk a handful of times at parties, but not to the point of vomiting, falling over or wetting myself in public. The hangovers afterwards put paid to me drinking way too much. For me, wasting a day or two afterwards is too high a price to pay.

I do drink, but not to excess. I hate feeling sick and getting a thunderous headache and I can get merry, but know when I have had enough.

It seems that far too many people just don't know when they have had enough.

[GokTwo]

Totally agree with you. It's a disgrace and a huge worry. I honestly believe that many crimes wouldn't happen if people drank less. We went to London recently and the train journey was totally vile due to a large group of loud, drunken football fans. Then when we came home the station was full of drunk people starting off a night out in our own city, screaming, pushing past people, jumping the queue for the taxis etc. It's bloody awful. I drink very little (the odd glass of wine) so I know that's considered nothing by many people but I think it is now socially acceptable to drink masses more than it used to be.

[SirChenjin]

Totally agree.

I don't drink very much and feel as if I'm a social pariah with 3 heads at times. My FB page (yes, I have one ) over Christmas was filled with photos of my 21 year old cousin and her BF asleep on the toilet floor/head over the toilet bowl with 'hilarious' comments about how it was 'obviously a good night out', with my other cousin's almost 40-year old girlfriend sympathising because she'd also spent the day hugging the loo after their 'great night' . Alcohol plays a huge part in their regular nights out, and it's never just a couple of glasses of wine.

We need to be far less tolerant of binge drinking, and those idiots who clog up A&E and the emergency services need to be made to pay, either financially or through the courts.

[Babycham1979]

To all those that insist this is some kind of modern phenomenon, I refer you to Beer Street and Gin Lane, by one William Hogarth in 1751;

//www.artble.com/imgs/a/c/2/733432/beer_street_and_gin_lane.jpg

The point of this drawing was to draw attention to what Hogarth saw as the moral turpitude brought on as a result of the modern scourge of gin. Note the syphilitic prostitute and the fighting drunkards.

To quote another classic work, 'there is nothing new under the sun' (the Bible, btw)

[Pointlessfan]

YANBU, I had a few bad experiences with drinking/vomiting as a teenager but soon grew up and learnt my limits. I'd be the first to admit I enjoy a drink but I never want to be so drunk I am ill, especially as it ruins the whole weekend recovering.
I remember once as a child needing hospital treatment on a Friday evening. I had to wait for stiches and an x-ray. A and E was really busy so we ended up waiting until after midnight. By then it was full of rowdy drunks and a fight started, I remember being really scared. I feel very sorry for the medics who have to treat these idiots and the other patients who have to put up with them.

[Babycham1979]

Incidentally, this is an interesting article on the subject of drinking styles and historic cultures. The author suggests that 'moderate' Mediterranean drinking habits in Europe broadly follow the area of the Roman Empire, and that British drinking habits follow the long tradition of Northern European 'feast and famine' boozing. Makes sense to me.

Oh, and for comparison, this WHO report from 2012 shows that episodic binge drinking in the UK is very average compared to our EUropean peers (page 152);

[Babycham1979]

Incidentally, this is an interesting article on the subject of drinking styles and historic cultures. The author suggests that 'moderate' Mediterranean drinking habits in Europe broadly follow the area of the Roman Empire, and that British drinking habits follow the long tradition of Northern European 'feast and famine' boozing. Makes sense to me.

Oh, and for comparison, this WHO report from 2012 shows that episodic binge drinking in the UK is very average compared to our EUropean peers (page 152);

//www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/160680/e96457.pdf

[Babycham1979]

And here, on page 5 you can see that our total mean intake per person is very average by European standards....

//www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/msb_gsr_2014_3.pdf?ua=1

[Shetland]

wheredo yes I've made a mistake. Same as yours actually. And I wasn't as quick a learner as you so I made it several times before learning my limits. And now I don't drink at all.

But what people are describing aren't mistakes.
My office Christmas do this year was divided in half. A meal for everyone and then home for some and onto bars for others - who all went with the intention of getting drunk. They had talked about little else for a week before hand. How much they had to drink was viewed as some sort of badge of honour and the 2 that got thrown out of a club were very pleased with themselves - and the others thought it was hilarious.
So glad I bailed at 9. Next year I may not bother at all.

[HopeClearwater]

I'm not expecting that someone calling themselves Babycham is going to do anything but defend drinking.

There are sociological studies showing that it's not the amount we drink in the UK that dictates how we behave when drunk, but what we expect to do when drunk. We behave badly when drunk. Other nationalities (eg Polish) drink an enormous amount but sit around and pass out. They don't spill out on to the street, shag each other up against nightclub walls and piss in the gutter.

And seriously, Babycham, go and ask people who work in A&E about drinking. They know.

[SirChenjin]

Agree with Hope.

If you look at this link (supposed to be working so I've not had time to look for the study) you'll see that whilst we don't drink the most alcohol across Europe, we drink the most in one sitting (ie we're the heaviest binge drinkers in Europe) www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7616405/Britain-is-the-binge-drinking-capital-of-Europe.html

[Bunbaker]

I agree with Hope as well. OH worked in Poland for several years and was staggered at how much alcohol people could consume. It was the behaviour afterwards that was so different to what you see in a typical UK town centre on a Friday and Saturday night.

[RussAbbotofUnreason]

can't/won't ever go on a social work outing as it tends to devolve into shots, vomit, fights, crying, people disappearing, affairs...

Christ almighty, where do you and your colleges work? A wild west frontier town?

Most people can and do drink and shock horror on occasion get drunk without becoming a violent, objectionable twat or wound themselves in the process. The vast majority of people out and about on Friday or Saturday night manage to have a good time, let their hair down and forget about the everyday crap in their life for a few hours.