Banning Happy Hour? The British Really ARE Bonkers!
November 25, 2008 by Colleen Coplick
Filed under Drinks
After going over the findings of an independent policy paper, British officials are considering banning “Happy Hour” discounts.
Advocates are warning that there has been a rise in liver-damage and related deaths among younger drinkers. They’ve decided that the cheap beer and highballs is contributing to this.
Imogen Shillito, the British Liver Trust spokeswoman told a London-based Associate Press reporter that, “We’re seeing a steep increase of deaths in people in their 20s and 30s. This indicates a big problem for many years to come.” [source]
Banning happy hour discounts is one of several ideas aimed at curbing the trend of binge drinking among teenagers and young adults that Britain is seeing. The government is also planning on spending approximately $15M on a new public awareness campaign (What? “Binge drinking will kill you!”?) and wants to improve the enforcement of the laws against underage drinking.
So here’s my question. If it’s teenagers and young adults that they’re worried about, why stop happy hours in the pubs? Are the young adults and teenagers really going to the pub, being served and getting sloshed at Happy Hour?? If they are, maybe it’s not the Happy Hour that needs to change – it’s the bar keeps who simply serve anyone on two legs.
(image source: me from flickr)
Welll, to be fair, drinking age is 18 in the UK, and if your parent is there you can be served legally when you’re as young as 16. The barkeeper isn’t to blame for serving them, at least not due to their age.
As a US citizen who married a UK citizen, I do think the hardest thing for me to get used to culturally was how much MORE people drink in the UK. What most of my US friends would consider a borderline drinking problem is really about normal in the UK. I’ve seen more staggering drunks there than anywhere else in the world. It’s amazing.