This is a story about drinking, about pubs, and about common-sense.
I grew up in a suburb of London which was ‘Gas Works’ working class, and where there was a pub on nearly every corner. I and my mates played ‘skiffle’ back in the days of Lonnie Donegan, in many of these pubs. Most pubs had their ‘regulars’ often living in the same street. Later on I occasionally visited various pubs, but I was not a heavy drinker. During all the time that I frequented them, I seldom saw a drunk fight, even a loud argument. Blokes used to put it away; it was nothing for a regular to sink more than six pints of his choice of brew, and then walk home. Sometimes his mates might lend a hand with the walking, but nobody got hurt, as a rule, and the most disturbance they caused was a two minute song.
Drinking hours were strictly limited, 10am till 2pm then 5.30pm or 6pm till 10pm or 10.30pm. Dependent on the area. There was always a “last orders please” call from the publican about ten minutes before ‘chucking out’ time, and then the doors were shut as soon as the last person left. The neighbourhood bobby always seemed to know if a pub was ‘stretching it’, and they would be fined accordingly.
Nobody complained, (except perhaps the ‘winos’ who did nothing else). It was a fact of life and people in general knew that it made sense.
Of course it was a totally different world then, but somehow it was a more “sane” world.
Now we have ‘licensed premises’ open right throughout the day until the early hours of the morning. Drunken brawls are seen in the usual places, people perform drunken acts in front of frightened members of the public and it is unsafe to visit many areas in most cities after 10.00pm or so. Of course the worst aspect of this crazy situation is that our youth are killing themselves in motor car wrecks every week. The police carry out DUI tests but our laws are far too weak, and there are just not enough police to control this situation.
To the crux of the matter. Why do we have such relaxed drinking laws? What responsible member of the population needs to drink beyond 11.00pm? Why are the pubs open all day? Is the dollar really such an incentive that we are happy to cause the weaker members of our population into becoming alcoholics? And are we really sure that the possibility of earning more money in liquor sales is worth the deaths on our roads?
There is something wrong with our thought processes when it is seen as mandatory to get “wasted” at a night out or at a party. Why does the family man feel that he needs to take a ‘case’ of beer home in his ‘ute’ so that he can enjoy his weekends viewing TV and having a “barbie”. And of course it’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Children who grow up in this environment see it as normal. What else can you expect? Unfortunately it will continue until someone of influence has the ‘cojones’ to stand up and say “that’s enough”. Yeah right……..
David Cocks
Port Macquarie
