Parliament to 'Booze Britain': Try temperance – at least twice a week

Binges and weekend blowouts are so widespread in 'Booze Britain,' according to a new report, that Parliament has tried to define 'sensible' drinking.

It is nice to hear that the British Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee today recommended that Brits lay off the drink twice a week, even if that solution might seem a little like trying to bail out a brewery with a thimble.

A number of establishments in Britain, no doubt, will respond to the report with hearty agreement followed by toasts all around.

But the prevalence of a drinking problem in what the report calls “booze Britain” is so manifest that the members of Parliament felt it incumbent to take an official look at what “sensible drinking" might mean.

British media have howled about the negative effects of destructive binge drinking among youth for years, without much result. Brits are notorious in Europe for taking cheap flights en masse to Krakow or the Spanish shore or the Canary Islands – to spend 48 hours getting smashed and irritating the locals. And that is just the beginning on the long list of heavy drinking excesses. 

The report was issued the same day as a Daily Mail report that binges and weekend blowouts are now so acceptable and regularized in Britain that, “Two-day hangovers have become the norm for office workers as staff relieve stress … with marathon alcohol binges, which start on Thursday night and continue until Sunday evening.” The new normal for a hangover is one that doesn’t dissipate until Tuesday afternoon, the piece continues. 

So it is not surprising to find a government body arguing for moderation, which is certainly a better concept of “sensible.” The findings of the study urge men and women to cut back from previous recommended “maximum drinking” levels, and the report recommends that women in particular reduce their totals, and that pregnant women abstain.

But some alcohol and drinking support groups, and even the report itself, questions whether the idea that one should cut drinking two days a week and adhere to daily totals actually promotes the idea of regular drinking, and is confusing.

A public health professor, Alan Maryon-Davis, told the BBC that "Broadly speaking [alcohol guidelines] are fit for purpose, but they need a bit of clarification. The word 'daily' I would object to. It gives the impression that it is a good idea to drink every day, which clearly it isn't."

The members of the parliamentary committee argue at the outset of the guidelines that, “There is a lack of consensus amongst experts over the health benefits of alcohol, but it is not clear from the current evidence base how the benefits of drinking alcohol at low quantities compare to those of lifelong abstention.”

It might be interesting to one day clarify that question. But as pastors, doctors, Alcoholics Anonymous, and many others who have seen the negative effects of drinking and other drugs have argued for many years (and often without being sanctimonious), addressing the causes of use or abuse are the most salutary measures.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Parliament to 'Booze Britain': Try temperance – at least twice a week
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0109/Parliament-to-Booze-Britain-Try-temperance-at-least-twice-a-week
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe