Bristol MP wants end to happy hours
Bristol MP and health minister Dawn Primarolo has spoken of her determination to target happy hours in an attempt to cut the £2.7 billion cost of drink problems to the NHS.
Details of a consultation were revealed as it emerged that 811,000 or six per cent of hospital admissions in 2006 nationally were alcohol-related.
Figures published in May showed that in the Bristol PCT area there were 2,302 hospital admissions due to alcohol in 2006/07, 892 in South Gloucestershire and 805 in North Somerset.
Bristol South MP Ms Primarolo, in her capacity as public health minister, wants to make a code for licensees to become mandatory and not voluntary, to restrict the way alcohol is sold.
Small glasses and measures would be available alongside large ones, happy hours and other cut-price promotions would be limited, and staff at shops and bars would have to be more aware of underage customers and refuse to serve them.
But landlords in the Bristol area say that any crackdown on promotions must also include supermarkets, which sell drinks at well below even happy hour prices.
Ms Primarolo told the Evening Post that 10 million people, about 26 per cent of the adult population, drink 76 per cent of the alcohol consumed in the UK. She said: “Most people are drinking perfectly sensibly but there is a small group causing significant harm and it is a huge cost to them, their families and to the health service.
“People need the information so that they can clearly understand if they are drinking too much it damages their health. It is not a risk-free experience.”
She said the drinks industry has a “vital role to play” in changing attitudes to drinking, and while she agreed there are businesses complying with the voluntary code, with some licensees failing to be responsible there is a need for more stringent rules.
Chairman of Bristol City Council's licensing committee, Ron Stone, believes there is a simpler solution to the issue of binge drinking – a legal minimum re-sale price for all alcohol.
He said: “If alcohol was the same price, wherever it was purchased, whether bar, club or a shop there would be the situation where people could charge more but there would not be the real problem we have now of proliferation of cheap alcohol.”
Chairman of the Bristol Licensees Association, Adam Cole, who is also a director of Henry Africa's Hothouse, welcomes plans that will improve health and safety. He said: “I think a lot of bars would be positive about these suggestions, providing they are also applied to the big supermarkets, because a lot of people are drinking at home and, as a result, bars are suffering.”
Mike Harrington, who runs two pubs in Chipping Sodbury, said the cheapest pint of beer he sold in the George in Broad Street was £2.65 but an equivalent can in a supermarket was 60p.
Mr Harrington, who is also landlord of the Beaufort, said: “In pubs, people are drinking in a controlled environment, but they can go into a supermarket and buy as much cheap alcohol as they want.
“We don't have a level playing field and pubs are only trying to compete by having happy hours.”
Mark Thompson, who runs the Farmhouse in Wellington Road, Yate, said: “I don't think landlords will mind there being a review as long as pubs aren't victimised.”
29 Comments
View all
by Knackeredmum, Bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 9:39PM
“The only reason Labour want us to pay more for our drinks is because they will get extra tax from it.
If they were serious about challenging the drinking culture in this country they would
1) Stop allowing so many bars to open (Yes Ms Prime Rolo That includes YOUR council too!)
2) control the supply of alcohol in the community (Out to local shops/ mini marts etc and in with authorised specialist stockists who are directly responsible to the authorities)
3) Create 'dry zones' around the city where there are no places serving alcohol and where people caught drinking in public are given an automatic fine and caution. (Think that's harsh? tell that to the poor motorists caught slightly over the limit by the speed scameras).
4) harsher penalties for bars serving drunks (more inspections during peak times too)
Then perhaps the police would find it easier to police our streets and because of limited availability the hospitals would be better off too.”
by Jeremy, Bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 9:25PM
“Since a lot binge drinking tends to go on in town centres, why not make it more expensive to drink in the town centres, and leave the rest of the world who wants a quiet, cheap drink, to do that in the suburbs. Considering the amount of police just on standby in the centre on Fri/Sat night, I think it is fair that city-centre drinkers are asked to pay a bit extra for the privilege of congregating in the centre.”
by K, Avonmouth
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 8:42PM
“Why not just bring back the State Management Scheme?
Why does every single person representing we the people seek to restrict the freedom of the majority in the name of controlling those who contribute little or nothing to this society?”
by Anon, Bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 8:21PM
“Perhaps Ms Primarolo will tour the pubs in her constituency to explain in person why the Nanny State wants to penalise the majority who are social drinkers. In the majority pubs the Landlord is trying to keep the pub open and needs help not hinderance from the State.”
by MikeMSN, Midsomer Norton
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 6:40PM
“Dear boozing infants. Overdone it? Never mind, mummy state will provide (by screwing decent people).”
by steve, bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 4:38PM
“red dawn the person who wants to clamp down on everything is this the same woman who balls up the child tax credits ?”
by peter, bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 4:35PM
“Is this the sensible dawn primarolo who encouraged people to burn their poll tax bills ? And now she wants to save the nhs money ?”
by Herbert, Bedmo
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 4:25PM
“First fags, now booze, fat (sorry clinically obese) people will be next, just you wait & I dont doubt the tax revenue lost from the above will be added to high fat content foods too. This whole government are inept & seemingly blind to the actual issues their stupid do gooding vote chasing laws create. Will the last overweight, alcoholic, chain smoking person left in the countly please turn out the lights......”
by John, Bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 3:17PM
“How about have warning labels on all alcoholic drinks whether bought in a shop or a pub warning of the dangers of drinking. If that person is then treated for a drink related problem they have to pay the bill for the NHS treating them. As for trouble the pubs and clubs should be responsible for anyone who causes trouble and require police attendance. Also, raise the age to 21 for drinking, smoking and driving!”
by anon, Bristol
Wednesday, July 23 2008, 2:04PM
“Abolition of happy hours, making alcohol more expensive and making venues more liable for sorting out alcohol related problems will not solve any of this. As a DS I am quite happy to lay the blame truely where it belongs at the feet of the general public. Who else is responsible for the amount of alcohol they drink?? Only they open their mouths to drink it, no one forces them. Each time someone goes off on the binge drinking crusade how about they come and work a weekend in our shoes and see on the frontline how it really is, it's not just the youngsters anymore its the older generation as well. Maybe then they could have the prospective of people who neither care how much is sold for brewery figures nor are interested in drinking themselves into a stupor and find a suitable solution???”