TOPIC:

Why does the Irish Medical Organisation want to stop people drinking at home? Surely they know that countries where moderate drinking is the norm, home drinking is the most common type of consumption. Are they stuck in the same cultural rut as everyone else, where they see daily drinking as dangerous but weekly drinking as healthy, when the reverse is true? Come on people, binge drinking is the problem not home drinking.

The World Health Organisation even postulates that binge drinking among young people in traditionally moderate drinking cultures may be “linked to the increasing spread and popularity of Anglo-Irish style pubs across Europe”

The UK's craft brewers agree with the IMO[/url:1blv3vq5].

Meanwhile, shops in central London are ceasing to stock cheap, strong beers and ciders[/url:1blv3vq5].

Scary.

I don't know about the UK, but in Ireland beer sales have dropped every year since 1999. Sales in 2006 were lower than they had been since 1988. But cheap supermarket beer is the reason for the increase in alcohol consumption?

"TheBeerNut":k92qkrzb wrote: The UK's craft brewers agree with the IMO[/url:k92qkrzb].[/quote:k92qkrzb]

Well that article doesn't explicitly mention drinking at home, but seems to focus more on binge drinking on the street.

[quote:k92qkrzb] pub drinking is quite different to consuming alcohol in the streets bought from corner shops or supermarkets[/quote:k92qkrzb]

So while the IMO might want 'to stop people drinking at home', SIBA want people to drink in the pub.

"noby":1v05xzsq wrote: So while the IMO might want 'to stop people drinking at home', SIBA want people to drink in the pub.[/quote:1v05xzsq]
Have you seen SIBA's Hogarth-esque illustrations[/url:1v05xzsq]?

"SIBA":1v05xzsq wrote: The couch-potato cheers the game,
With lonely pizza, 6-pack drinks
Every booze-filled fridge's the same
Each man at home in stupor sinks[/quote:1v05xzsq]

(High-res illustrations via Stonch[/url:1v05xzsq].)

In fairness to SIBA, I think there is a greater number of ordinary, decent pubs in the UK, than the giant, trendy alco-barns that seem to be in the majority here.

Now admittedly I don't live in the UK, and most of my socialising there would not be out on the town at night, but afternoons and evenings spent in the pub, but even still, the vast, vast majority of pubs I've encountered in Britain have been establishments where you go to eat and drink a few pints, there's tables everywhere, it's not pumping loud music, and even if it was the set-up of the pub simply wouldn't be one that would encourage standing around bopping in place and schulling pints/shots.