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Friday, September 18, 2009

Top docs 'ill-informed' on alcohol debate

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/84423?PagingData=Po_0~Ps_10~Psd_Asc

It's Good Stuff from BII, Neil Robertson's getting his teeth into the job.

BMA has, for decades, made recommendations for society that would not seem out of place if they came down from the rarified environs of a male only private club off St James's where a clique of cigar smoking armagnac sipping toffs who hunt n' shoot n' fish for whole months of the year and know much better than the hoi polloi what is good for the unwashed majority... err that's the rest of us who didn't go to . Scary stuff. One imagines they get concerned like this when there's not enough of us peasants left to beat the pheasants out of the heather to adequately serve their weird recreational habits.

Still. Prohibition worked a treat didn't it. THAT temperance movement was driven by religious fervour though and created just about the most perfectly pernicious petri dish conditions for cultivating ruthless criminal activity known to man - until the advent of pubcos that is. Giving everyone a good education like what the toffs got would be a better start but that won't happen either as long our society thrives on its differences. That way there's always lots of other people to blame for everything. Personally; I blame the parents.

And when it comes to people criticising Neil Robertson for doom laden predictions of closures on a massive scale if these measures are adopted - get off it. He's saying this because he's exceptionally well informed - he's been learning fast, chalice in hand - and knows how much of this trade is teetering on the brink of collapse. Anything more now to kerb our society's drinking traditons will kill off a lot more than fun and not see the beneficial returns the medics forsee.

Binge drinking is nothing new. It is a noble and vulgar tradition of northern societies since before the dawn of history. It should be tackled maturely, not proscriptively, through effective education and by dealing with offenders directly according to their severity of their antisocial misbehaviour. Community work and educational programmes cost a lot though and demand a lot of thought so hammers for nuts seem better value.

No democratically elected government really wants MORE control, even Labour has been devolving social responsibilities and decision making down to regions and localities, they want better behaviour out of a population, and far lower health care bills, they just don't know how to achieve it.

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