Next weeks Hot Topic on Great Food Live is 24 Hour Drinking. How do you feel about the proposal to keep bars and pubs open all night? Are you relishing the idea of drinking around the clock, or do you think it will only lead to an increase in binge drinking? William Sitwell will be taking your calls in the studio on Thursday - we want to hear your views!

Hmm,

I wonder if this will provoke the same reaction as the smoking thread

It seems that since the site removed Off the Menu and got rid of all the people who discussed or argued there, GFL have decided to start their own arguments.

Extending drinking hours only extends social problems which the police and public can do without. Crimes such as rape, domestic violence, robbery and drunken driving will increase as has already been proven in other countries that have adopted the extended hours drinking law.

But why should we have to shut the pubs at 11pm when I want to go out with friends for a drink?? I don't smash pubs or other humans up, I don't urinate all over the street, or abuse the police or other people. So why can't I be allowed to drink??

I love it in France or Belgium or anywhere in Europe, except where the English go, where you can sit down, have a glass of wine, pastis, lager or coffee anytime and anywhere and you can talk loudly and discuss things louder if you want, and not get your face punched in for anything.

The UK really does need to grow up

Sorry didn't mean to go off on one. I just hate the fact that just because 10% of the UK act like an Ahole and cannot control themselves, the rest of us suffer.

Now don't get me wrong, I used to drink alot, but never, ever, EVER would I hurt someone or do damage to someone else's property. Maybe I sang as I walked home from the Pub and woke people up, but I went out to enjoy myself, not to destroy people's pubs/bars or livelihoods.

Well I live in Denmark where its not normal to go out drinking until about 11pm, most of the pubs stay open until around 6am and my experience of doing this for the last four years has been a good one people seem a lot more civilized when they drink over a longer period. Dont get me wrong you do still see the odd fight but drink does bring violence out in some people where ever you live. My last point when I came back to the UK in the summer I did notice some pubs staying open until 4 in the morning so I dont think it will be a big problem when this new law is past because I think it is allready in force without people noticing.

I agree that drinking hours should be extended but i think the only way to reduce social problems is to make the drinking age 21 instead of 18, if anyone can show me an 18 year old that doesn't want to go out and get insanely drunk I'll be amazed. Also, I think the government should stop places such as weatherspoons from selling alcohol at such low prices. A weatherspoons opened in my home town of Stourbridge and the town is now full of yobs and violence is commonplace.

...And for those of you who beleive changing the law is wrong then understand that although bars can now extend their hours that doesn't mean they will. they still have to apply for an extended license and although they'll be granted one the local Police still have to give concent, if they object the license wont be given.

My opinion is that the yob culture of this country goes far deeper than the amount of alcohol people consume, I think people have to look at the way parents are bringing up their children, the way schools disipline students (or don't)......I could go on forever.

Drinking for the yob culture is out of control at the moment, so any change might be for the best.

The police and hospitals know the correlation between quantities of alcohol drunk and crime - this is not in dispute. Given this fact, the only question we need to ask ourselves is "will extending drinking hours mean people will drink more?" Those that think we will drink the same and stagger drinking times are missing a point: the pubs and breweries who decide to open all hours must be figuring on us drinking more - otherwise how would they increase their revenues enough to pay staff for those extra nightime hours?

Paul Griff you make me so angry, Why should weatherspoons not have offers on cheap wine and beers ? If I want to go out for a meal and a drink with my friends and family why should I be made to pay over the odds for the privilage, weather spoons and the loke are just the same as any other buisness, Im sure you like choice in your supermarket regards prices etc so why shoul we not have the same in pubs. Oh and the drinking age in Denmark is 14 and I really dont see it courses any problems maybe we should take a leaf out of the french peoples book and give our kids wine at an early age and stop making out that drink is such a special thing to do just when you reach 18.

I agree with extending the opening hours. I lived for nine years in Germany when I was in the armed forces, and the extended hours did seem to cut down the fights, trouble with police etc. However when some new was posted in they thought it was great, and really went to town (sorry for the pun) but after a couple of weeks they settled down and it turned out to be a more mellow attitude to drinking. I predict when 24hr opening does happen, all hell will break loose for a while then it will slowly loose its novelty and calm down. I am not looking to much to it though, as I live in Newquay and we have a lot of problems with binge drinking.

Where are people going to get the extra money to drink for 24hrs? Im still only going to have the same ammount of money to spend whether its for 4 or 24 hrs. And I think most people will be in the same boat.

We have debated this in work recently.
I think that the binge drinking culture has mushroomed because people who partake do not know what else to do.
Younger people today look aghast if anyone suggests going out for a meal or the theatre etc.
In many people's minds having fun equals going out and getting drunk.
It is cool to tell people how drunk you were on Friday or Saturday night.
This is perpetuated to a large degree on radio and television. Cool, trendy presenters talk of how 'mental' the weekend was.
As younger people have never done much else except go out and drink they do not think that anything else can be fun.
Of course I generalise - there are lots of younger people who enjoy a wide range of interests as well.
It's odd that you never see 'older' people out getting very drunk every weekend - I think they know what else to do to have fun (or are put off by the horrific/scary scenes they see on television documentaries).
How will it change? Only when it becomes fashionable not to drink will people start to move on. When new social activities become popularised people will start to think there are other things to do.
Have I talked enough?
Oh, and I am on the edge of being young and 'older' at 32 - and I often join my friends at the weekend to drink too much.
Am I concerned? Yes.
Do I stop? No.
Paul, Cardiff

I worry about the binge drinkers, but perhaps they won't drink so much so quickly if they don't have to fit it in by 11pm. Also the thought is that there won't be so much trouble like there is now at closing time because there won't be a closing time, so there won't suddenly be hundreds of people out on the streets all at the same time.

I'm a bit of an optimist and think anything is worth a try, I suppose that if some pubs have a lot of trouble because of the extended opening hours, then their license to open for 24hrs will be taken away or certainly not renewed.

Lets suck it and see.

It is fair to say that the attitude towards alcohol must change. Purely extending hours may solve certain issues such as the problems between 1-2am but that won't change peoples drinking habits.

We have 2 key problems in this country. Underage Binge Drinking and Adult Binge Drink with Violence.

Tackling Binge drinking in Children is a MUST, and can only be done through education and severe penalties to those who sell alcohol to Children.

It is astonishing the amount of kids you see drinking to the level where they are passing out. At the age of 11/12/13 their Livers ain't up to binge drinking and as such are building up issues for later in their lives if they continue the habit into their 30's and 40's.

24 opening times won't solve this particular problem within our society.

24 hour opening of bars would be great new for people working back shifts or night shifts. If you've just finished eight to twelve hours working, finishing at anything from two till eight in the morning, how lovely to be able to go to a bar for a snack and a beer or wine, or whatever, after work to chill out before going home. So, you're drinking in the morning, but what's the difference when your working day starts at the other end of the day to everybody else?

As a member of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) who worked very hard to get the 24/7 licencing through, I feel I must clear up a few missunderstandings. The 24/7 licence, which has had to be applied for by each individual pub or club and approved by the local council on its merrits, is by no means a 24 hour a day invitation.
Most pubs will have only applied for a couple of extra hours at the weekend, and many publicans may well apply for extra time each night so it is there should they need it. Night clubs may well stay open longer, but people have only so much to spend when they go out.

At the end of the day, the call is for 24/7 LICENCING , NOT 24 hour DRINKING . This point is forgotten when people start to address the subject, so let us rejoice in the extra hour or two we can have appreciating a pint of real ale.

Well put Man Friday.
The main issue with drinking and the UK is the culture....all thru' the ages we have been obsessed with drinking to get drunk rather than drinking to enjoying the taste/social event. My experience from mainland europe is the latter....they (mainly French/Italian, from my experience) are brought up from an early age with drink in a social environment. When they grow up they appreciate the finer quality of whatever they drink. With the UK we get drunk to excess (that probably includes me from time to time) which reveals the animal in a very small % of people (not me) who then go round hitting the nearest thing, and worse. This is a social problem revealed by drink.
Fortunately, the majority don't go round like thugs when drunk. Take the English cricket team...a few were plastered during the parade but at no point did they disgrace themselves, no obscene guesture, no violance, still polite (and apologetic) when being interviewed by the press - this shows that respectable people can behave even with a skinful.
I think the 24/7 gives a better flexibility to todays working patterns (shift workers etc) and allows us to pace ourselves instead of the 3 pints at last orders and staggers the chucking out time. With sensible licencing controls this can work given time.
just my thoughts!

I remember we used to get a couple of pints in at 10.50 so we could keep drinking. I think it's also to do with just being able to get a beer - If it's open all day and night - Maybe it will lose the excitement of that last bell and downing a few before you go home !!

By the way CAMRA keep the good real ale up