According to a survey by the British Beer and Pub Association, 71 per cent of the 2,095 people polled said the changes to the licensing laws made last year in England and Wales have not encouraged them to go to pubs more or to start drinking later in the evening.
That is very heartening. Data from the 43 police forces of England and Wales show that there has not been an upsurge in crime and disorder associated with drinking in pubs and clubs in the last year. The purpose of the system of licensing under the Licensing Act 2003 is to promote objectives such as the prevention of crime disorder, and the prevention of public nuisance. Judged against those objectives, the Act has been successful so far.
As part of social life, alcohol is widely appreciated. In cultures that have an established history of its enjoyment, governments have found it difficult to eliminate or suppress. Attempts to exercise severe control over its use have failed. Speaking in Parliament on May 31, 1832, Mr Arthur Trevor, MP, proposed legislation to tighten control over the sale of beer. He said that pubs had contributed to “the habits of idleness, drunkenness, and every species of immorality” and that they were “a consummation of all that tended to crime”. His proposal failed. The American prohibition of alcohol introduced by law from 1920 was abandoned as unworkable in 1933.
But tolerance of alcohol and the ubiquitous availability of drink are different from a social acquiescence in the commercially reckless saturation marketing of alcohol to children and teenagers. The success of the Licensing Act 2003 in limiting violent crime and public order offending must be offset by the growth in other alcohol-related problems. Among 11 to15 year olds, the mean consumption of those who drink has doubled in the last 15 years. The law would achieve a better balance between tolerance and responsibility if it exercised greater control over the advertising of alcopops to young people.
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That alcohol is both desirable and problematic is captured in the poignant Amy Winehouse song Rehab “Didn’t get a lot in class, but I know it don’t come in a shot glass,” she sings. Not everyone, though, fully apprehends the subtleties of the dilemma. In an episode of The Simpsons, in which governmental prohibition of drink is in issue, Homer declares “To alcohol! The cause of – and the solution to - all life’s problems!”
Gary Slapper is a Professor of Law at the Open University and a Times Online columnist