24 hour drinking in the UK would not be sensible

Lawyer. Come on man, anglophobic comparisons of us as a nation, to a nation who's highlight of the day is the arrival of the breadman, is a bit shallow dont y know.

24 hour drinking per se is not a bad idea, it works where people are educated and responsible. In the UK most people aren't, and they abuse the facility of 24 hour drinking.

The answer lies in pro-active policing, severe punishment of offenders, not just ASBOs and a £10 fine, and education of the younger people. The police should be allowed to give troublemakers a crack across the head. Drinking establishments need to be better controlled and 'Happy Hour' type offers banned or restricted, particularly 'all night Happy hours'

If that makes me a 'fascist', then I'm a fascist and proudly so.

The "night economy" has been a total disaster for Britain, costing taxpayers untold £millions every year in policing, local authority cleaning up of street mess caused by late night drinkers, courts' time in dealing with offenders who turn out of pubs looking for trouble and disturbance to residents. The only sector that benefits is the private sector (brewers) who make the profits. Go to a French town and feel the calm at midnight. Everyone tucked up in bed in peace and quiet (not Paris, obviously!). So much better than here. Britain is the dustbin of Europe.

You cant blame pubs or the law for binge drinkers, you have to blame the people themselves with no self control over how much they drink! Pubs should have the right to stay open just like our supermarkets do- yet we dont blame asda and tesco for obesity do we?!

Sunday for example has been turned into a riot in most town centres with all day drinking. In the old days when the pubs closed in the afternoon there was a cooling off period.Sunday night was at best a quiet quiz night. Nowadays there is a match on TV at 1.30 ,4.00 and then a karaoke into the night . Mayhem ensues . The politicians know this . But lets remember the extended hours where given on the grounds of 'nightshift workers can call in the pub after work'.
Ha ha ha

I think it's about time we as a nation curbed our drinking, and that includes me. I intend to cut down in the new year - I drink far too much!

Course its a good idea,its terrible that pubs close early,we don't want to go home early the speed and coke we are on is just too good to go home!It's not as if we can sleep anyway so may as well keep drinking!

Totally typical of the brain dead Labour Government to show the public they are doing something whether it be for the good or not.One day Blair wanted drunks marched to a cash point to pay on the spot fines,totally impossible to police but what changed his mind was not the obvious but a front page newspaper picture of his underage son on all fours drunk crawling across a street.His effort to change British culture overnight not only disrupted daily life in Britain,it spawned a new culture of unruly drunks taking up the valuable time of the police whom have far more pressing criminal issues to contend with.

this is just another unthoughtout piece of law from our discredited Govt,it always appears to me at least, that whichever party is in power they all want to be seen to be doing something,usually making at least one law a day,whether said law is needed or not.
Its a bit odd though that the Government that gave us 24 hours drinking then turns around and moans that yobs are getting drunk every day,Of course my real gripe is that I can't afford to,and if I could I'd buy myself a newer car!

Accept the change - how are we suppose to evolve if you people keep resisting change?! Of course there will be some short term impacts of changes like this but give it more time and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
It just annoys me that there are lots of people out there that complain and object to almost every change that gets proposed.

When Big Brewer said: "Give us back the freedom to flog cheap booze in Supermarkets and the world will be all fluffly bunnie-wunnies", the government listened.

Now Big Pharma are saying: "Give us back the freedom to flog cheap Heroin and Crack in supermarkets and the world will be all fluffy bunnie-wunnies" will the government listen?

This attempt to drag us all screaming back to pre-Dickensian times in the name of high profits for multi national corporations and higher tax bills for the rest of us who have to deal with the social consequences needs to be opposed more vigourously.

When Sweden sought to control the alcohol problems they were having through imposing a minimum price on products, Big Brewer issued a state whining about how this was empowering criminal gangs. The Government stood their ground and imposed them anyway.

We must not give these corporate expansionists any more gorund. 24 hour drinking should be repealed and a minimum price should be affixed. Let the b----ds squirm and protest, after all they have thousands of pounds worth of self awarded bonuses to fall back on.

its a great idear .. stil waitin 4 em 2 ligalize drugz doe :L

OOPS! 24 hours opening!!!! Umm, well I have just had two glasses of nice red wine!

25 hour opening was a very clever idea, it serves two purposes. One is to show the population that the government are "really good chaps" to allow people to drink all hours, the other (and most important) is to make more money!
The morons that are supposed to be in charge of this fading country really do not care a damn other than to score points (votes) and to make money (inc expenses).
Why do you think they allowed alcopops to be sold? To encourage young people to drink of course!
Also, the introduction of 24 hour drinking made our country more acceptable to EU immigrants.
Lets get back to the old licencing hours.
I lived through my teens and early 20's in a large UK town and we were quite happy to be kicked out of the pub on a Sat night at 11 PM. Not rat-arsed either! We would go straight on to a coffee bar. I never once saw the disgusting spectacle we get now every weekend.

I quote...."The British are, dare I say it, too brain dead." Well perhaps this gripster is too brian dead to have noticed but we have had the ability for venues to apply for 24 hour opening since 2005! Only 700 venues in the UK have 24 hour opening on their premises lcience, and of them, only a few use it. The fact is British people have been getting drunk and binge drinking since Chaucer's times, if not before, and the Labour Government's idealistic wish to see things change here to as they are on the Continent (cafe style culture) was never going to happen overnight - it won't happen in this generation, and possibly not even the next. It is an admirable wish, but sometimes I think it'll never happen... unless we lock up all people of below average intelligence and see how much our towns benefit from their absence on a Saturday night.

While I don't really think that 24 hour drinking is a good idea, I read that there are actually only two pubs in the country that actually have 24 hour licenses, both in Blandford Forum. This suggests that the 'market' is not over keen on 24 drinking either?

eugh - I am a social/celebratorial drinker. but that doesnt mean I enjoy almost pointlessly wasting my money all the time on alcohol. I especially don't see the point in drinking so much 'till your sick either - or you cant remember squat. people complain abut throwing up after, so what is the point in reaching that stage in the first place?
surely allowing pubs to be open 24 hours only encourages people, especially alcoholics to linger around those places for longer periods of time drinking and giving no reason for keepers to kick them out unless they have passed out/ill?

I agree, lock up the drunks if they're not able to go about their business without causing more disturbance than a slightly annoying sober person.

I'm quite a night owl myself, and I do enjoy having a drink in the local, combine the two and I'm happy about it, then again, a highly inebriated lout isn't too much of a danger to a young fit person like me, so I suppose an increase in police patrols would be a good idea.

Well said, Alan. Until the British public are able to use alcohol in a mature and responsible manner, and my guess is that will be never, then self induced suffering should be rewarded by punishment.

They should be locked in a prison cell until they sober up. Repeat offenders should be locked up for a few days. Unpleasant, yes, Cruel, yes. Effective, yes.

By having 24h drinking, you are absorbing resources that should be used else where. I work as a paramedic, and the fact is, we have seen an increase in the number of call outs in the last few years, more so on a Friday and Saturday night. Although people are correct in saying that it is their right to have an ambulance if they are collapsed and unresponsive due to drink, people need to think and look at the wider picture. As a country we have only so many resources in the 'pot'. I have been activated to calls which are high priority. Calls such as increased shortness of breath, elderly people who have fallen and have a possible fractured hip. On the way to these calls we have been diverted to someone who has collapsed due to alcohol intoxication. A self inflicted problem. We have been diverted to these calls due to the fact that these people, due to having reduced level of consciousness, are considered high priority due to 'not being able to fully maintain their airway'. However, when I turn up to these calls, I am able to get a response. Rather than reducing problems, 24 hour drinking has made them worse, extending the hours of the problem. Police as a resource are also condensed into these hours, taking them away from reducing crime and having a presence where they are needed to deter anti social behaviour.

As a society, we need to treat the population as a mother or father would treat a child. If bad behaviour is a problem, don't reward it by making it more accessible. If a child wilfully breaks a toy, you don't give it more toys. You make it understand its value. Therefore, why extend and make alcohol more accessible when it is causing so many problems.

Employers should also be making a stand. When an employee is seen to act in an aggressive, or rowdy manor, in public, the employer should take action against them. If I am seen to act in a way that some people do on film or in public, I can be fired and taken off my professional register.