Brits have a huge problem with alcohol

[SteveLpool]

AIBU to think that this country has a particularly acute problem with boozing, alcohol, drinking (whatever you call it) compared to our peers in Europe and the rest of the world?

I've worked and travelled abroad quite a lot and i never had the issues i am having now being back at home in the UK with regards to being the odd one out at a bar or a pub just because I'm not having alcohol.

Sometimes a few of us will get together after work and I'll have a diet coke or even a soda water and lime.. when my choice of drink is known ("is there vodka in that????") there becomes an aura of uncomfortableness (if that is even a word) like I've committed a crime.. soon afterwards the comments come..

"what's in that?"
"why arnt you drinking"
"are you a lightweight"
"just have a couple"

I have a theory of why this is for Brits in particular.. We as a people are quite emotionally & socially reserved therefore inhibitions MUST be lowered to have any form of good time..

The med countries for example like Italy and Spain have more of a coffee wine bar culture because they are quite outgoing and introverted.

For the record I'm not against alcohol, I'm big on my fitness and gym and I'm not prepared to ruin my gains for a few hours in a dingy British pub.. I save my boozing for when i go away on holiday.

Meh
At least if it's the parents buying there's much more control over what and how much is getting bought
Meh.
The lazy arse 'parents' justification to provide alcohol to children.

I'm not at all convinced that in any way indicates that young people are drinking more. It just indicates that it's much harder to get hold of alcohol as a teen
Luckily these days, the 'I don't want to parent, I want to be mates' generation is happy enough to step in and ensure their children have the opportunity to drink 🤷‍♀️

Having just returned from a holiday destination which was filled with 70% American guests, I would say that they have a massive drinking problem. I’ve never seen people drink constantly from morning till night in such huge quantities. It was shocking!

When we were in Nimes this summer we often went to the local covered market for breakfast (you could pick up a decent cafe au lait and a croissant for a couple of euro). We saw plenty of people getting stuck in to wine and beer at 9am. Is that better than going to Wetherspoons at 9am because it is French people doing it at a pictureque local market in a sunny town?

There are two separate issues here - heavy drinking and poor behaviour. Some of the biggest problem drinkers are doing it at home behind cmosed doors.

The UK sits roughly halfway down the list of European alcohol consumption. Roughly speaking, the Med and Scandi drink less then us, the East Europeans drink more. There is further split with on average younger people drinking less and older people drinking more.

I recall a ski trip to Chamonix years ago where the large Swedish contingent would hit the bars extremely hard at about 4pm and then all disappear at about 6pm and would be on the first lifts the next day fresh and full of beans. I kind of admired the discipline to be honest!

I was in Bordeaux a few weeks back and witnessed the same thing in the large undercover market. After doing the weekly shop a bottle wine was cracked open at about 10.30am. In fairness people were not rolling about in the street roaringly drunk, they sipped their wine, caught up with friends and then pottered off home around lunchtime with their shopping. Bit early for me!

Without the odd attitude we wouldn't have gems like the Creation of Manchester....

This is definitely a factor

@DanseAvecLesLoup yep - seems to be a big thing in the South - we called it breakfast wine (never partook ourselves).

The french do do very public drunkness - we often go to a small seaside town near the border with Spain and they have a big festival and with a sports event most evenings in the summer and the local fishermen get roaring drunk every night on pernod. Mr Monkey joined them one night, bailed early and deeply regretted it in the morning.

There is an interesting post to be made about the issue of social norms, the decline of city centre living and the abandnment of city centre nightlife to one particular age demographic in the late eighties to nineties that encouraged a Saturday night/Sunday morning culture that embedded poor behaviour and binge drinking in the UK but I have to get on with work!

I'm 36 years old, I feel my well-rounded life experiences are closer to the truth than some arbitrary statistics

😂😂😂

There seems to be some heavy drinking in my parents generation (late 50s/60s). My dad, uncle and FIL are all heavy drinkers.

@Headabovetheparakeet I know right! These pronouncements are usually form people that have experienced a very sam,l;, middle calss part of Europeaen countries on holiday.

Like British people who bang on about how great French trains are having got the TGV a couple of times - they have never known the agony of some crappy tin can on rails commnuter services in deepest France operating to a timetable written by an insane person.

Because ... there are thousands of different wines made from hundreds of different grape varieties and combinations and many of them are truly exquisite?
If you've only tried £6 and under supermarket wines I can maybe understand this comment but there are gorgeous wines (at many budgets) for those with a palate to appreciate them.

I work with someone who professed to hate wine until our boss introduced her to Sancerre at around £70 a bottle (restaurant prices).

Good point.
It’s not the time/level of consumption that makes British people look bad, it’s the behaviour afterwards.
In all the large cities I have visited around the world it’s only in British ones where I have seen scenes like that photo of Manchester late on a Friday/Saturday night.

A few years ago I had to go to the equivalent of an A&E in a large town in Spain at midnight on a Saturday. I have previously witnessed English A&Es at the same time and was dreading it. There wasn’t 1 person there drunk that I could see.

It again depends on the demographic. My youngest two are 25 and 27, then my kids go upto 37. The youngest or their friendship group are still meeting in traditional ways. No one is hooking up on line. At the most the initial chat is on Snapchat etc.
You've got your substance issues in the gym.
I'm not a big drinker, but I miss the pub scene of the 2000's.

I still go to pubs and love them. I don't drink much, but I love a good pub.

You've got your substance issues in the gym.

This is true. The use of anabolic steroids has dramatically increased as boys/men chase that Love Island aesthetic.

I have seen young people laugh online at male stars bodies of years ago. Men were just allowed to look natural then.

Love the way you have deliberately moved the 'meh' from the paragraph that it related to, and moved it to make a quote standalone, that specifically related to the paragraph above.

Are you a journalist by any chance? This type of misquoting is exactly the kind of crap they pull.

Most I know do both - drink and gym (obviously not at the same time).

I find the Irish have more of a drinking culture, but are more sensible and respect it more, if that makes sense.

You've never been on a boat train to/from Holyhead in the late evening/early morning then?

"I suspect the issue is that so many more young adults in the US drive, so drink driving is a much bigger health problem than in many European countries."

When I first moved to Belgium at the turn of the century, drink driving was seen as a youth problem. I was surprised because in the UK it was a bigger problem with older people who were more used to it being tolerated. It's possible that as time went on, American young people would have got used to not always drinking and driving though I realise they have many areas with no public transport options compared to urban parts of Europe.

"But if one or several people aren't drinking when everyone else is, it causes confusion as to which rules apply and how informal and care free you can be with everyone."

That makes sense. It's also just not much fun drinking with someone who is having soft drinks or sitting there looking bored.

Maybe she usually has just 1 alcoholic drink so if she has 0 it's noticeable. It doesn't mean she's a heavy drinker.

"When I was at university in 1978 the cheapest drink was 1 litre bottles of Sainsburies Cider 6% I think it was and it was 70p."

I was mid to late 90s and pubs would have offers including vodka for 50p.