British pubs, bars and nightclubs are allegedly "actively encouraging drunkenness", says a UK Government report into binge drinking.
It condemns licensees for promoting cut-price offers and serving people that are "already drunk".
The critical report questions the role pub, bars and nightclub in binge drinking and why they continue to serve people who are either drunk or underage.
The Home Office commissioned gravy train specialists, consultants KPMG, to write the report, A Review of the Social Responsibility Standards for the Production and Sale of Alcoholic Drinks, in February.
It was due to be published in May but it is understood to have been delayed because it raises the question whether deregulation has fuelled underage and binge drinking.
A team of researchers visited nearly 600 pubs, bars, nightclubs, off-licences and supermarkets in England over a five-day period. The locations visited included Coventry, Hackney, Harrogate, Manchester, and Swindon.
All inclusive admission and drinks offers have largely been stamped out by Licensing Officers and common sense and "happy hours" are mainly confined to small pubs now.
Service of people already drunk is already an issue monitored very closely by bar managers and door staff - with strict legal penalties if a bar tender is caught. Customers buying drink for other people who are drunk is more of a practical problem and there is no easy way round that one. But for the report to rely upon amateur anecdotal evidence from survey staff, sorry I meant "
consultants", is extremely irritating!
Wait for it folks! The most amazing bit is that the report also adds that most supermarkets are complying more fully with the industry standards, by displaying signs encouraging sensible drinking. Nonsense! I have never seen such cheap booze offers as supermarkets are currently running. Even my local corner shop was offering 2-4-1 on cider recently. I had a party at home recently and it was cheaper to buy from Tesco than it was from my trade cash & carry wholesalers.
The increasing "nanny state" tendencies of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government knows no limit but when it relies upon consultants who take huge chunks of public money to tell the government what it wants to hear then its low credibility rating sinks further into the mire!
