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Just the one
Jul. 31st, 2005 10:53 pmI got into a discussion on cam.misc (the local newsgroup) on drunks in Cambridge (as it's on cam.misc, the thread dissolves into local politicians saying it isn't their fault and a discussion of Cambridge traffic). Apparently, the Mayor gave an interview to the local rag about it, which was picked up by the Torygraph. I also found an interesting article in the Observer, which accuses the Government of being double-minded about drink.
As I said on the group, in the case of the big chain pubs who blight the centre of town by disgorging drunks onto the narrow streets at 11 pm, I'd favour the police being a bit more rigourous in enforcing the law, which says that pubs may not serve someone who's visibly drunk. Having the chains pay for extra policing also seems like a good plan. While, as the original poster said, it isn't downtown Detroit, and as someone else said, this is part of a national trend, it's also an observable fact that the city centre is a less friendly place than it used to be before the arrival of the big chains.
It'll be interesting to see what effect the forthcoming liberalisation of opening hours has on all this: I'm not particularly optimistic, but I take the point that staggered closing times at least mean all the drunks aren't on the street at once.
Brits have never been good at handling their drink, of course, but there seems to be frustratingly little official will to actually do anything about this at the moment (doing something about it does not equate to passing new laws, since we have plenty of those already, but rather, seeing them enforced).
As I said on the group, in the case of the big chain pubs who blight the centre of town by disgorging drunks onto the narrow streets at 11 pm, I'd favour the police being a bit more rigourous in enforcing the law, which says that pubs may not serve someone who's visibly drunk. Having the chains pay for extra policing also seems like a good plan. While, as the original poster said, it isn't downtown Detroit, and as someone else said, this is part of a national trend, it's also an observable fact that the city centre is a less friendly place than it used to be before the arrival of the big chains.
It'll be interesting to see what effect the forthcoming liberalisation of opening hours has on all this: I'm not particularly optimistic, but I take the point that staggered closing times at least mean all the drunks aren't on the street at once.
Brits have never been good at handling their drink, of course, but there seems to be frustratingly little official will to actually do anything about this at the moment (doing something about it does not equate to passing new laws, since we have plenty of those already, but rather, seeing them enforced).
