Hi all
I'm afraid this is going to be a bit of a 'grumpy old woman' post: I spent the weekend in Bath and decided to go to the cinema on Saturday evening. (See the review of Michael Clayton in the Film forum.) On my way back to the YMCA (only the best accommodation for me!) I was just horrified by the number of young people staggering around, drunk out of their minds and the pools of vomit I had to avoid. These weren't yobs or louts; I didn't feel threatened or afraid; they were just normal youngsters out on a Saturday night in a town which I would have thought of as ultra-respectable. I think I was so shocked because I'm not usually out and about at night at the weekend but, as I was with a group of American students, I was hugely embarassed at this display. I don't remember it being like this when I was in my late teens, early twenties. Sure, we went out and sometimes had a few too many, but the streets weren't full of drunken idiots (or were they?)
Anyway, if this is what happens in Bath, then what's it like in other places?
I remember reading that the English have always had a drinking culture. Basically we drink to get drunk and stagger around. But it didn't look like it was much fun to me.
Love
Sunanda xxx
Don't forget that this is the time of year for "freshers" at University, so there's a lot of young people with a new found freedom away from the parents. 😉
Yes, that's true Giles, but that's almost more cause for concern than if it's just the town's youngsters out on the piss. The daughter of a good friend of mine has just started university in Leeds and, because she doesn't drink (has never liked the taste or the effect) she's feeling quite out of the loop, as all her fellow freshers are busy getting slaughtered.
I'm really not a killjoy but getting drunk is such a negative thing and very dangerous too. I'm really just having a moan about the way we do things in this country. Do other European countries have this problem? And of course there was not a single police officer to be seen. Interestingly, the American students told me that in some American towns similar scenes are now being witnessed, in spite of the higher drinking age there.
Love
Sunanda xxx
Hi sunanda
I think it stems from the sixties, and post war Britain...When I was growing up in the sixties we had the loved-up hippies mods and rockers, and were taught to work hard and play harder.......It was a time of free love.....LSD and 'uppers and downers'.........coupled with the consumer society we live in today, and the emphasis on owning what we can't really afford.......leads us to the 'Saturday Nights' we find in any large City or town....
I know the government have a new teaching initiative on ' Values Education 'Because Crabapple is doing her Masters around this very subject...Collating info now, on her students, to compare with at the end of her degree
Our city centre is a definite ' No Go ' area on Saturday nights.....It's a shame, but there you are.
Oakapple xx
Hi Oakapple
I too grew up in the sixties and I'm afraid I can't agree that today's drinking culture among the young stems from those heady days. I would possibly lay the blame on the seventies and the punk culture. We flower children were not hopping around on uppers and downers, we were lying in the park passing joints and watching the clouds float by! Sure we would drink, but not to excess. There's a nihilism about today's young which really disturbs me. They have few expectations and aspirations, well that's generalising so it's not really a fair comment. But alcohol scares me rigid - it's such a dark energy and is so hard to control. Let's not forget that alcohol is a dangerous drug too, albeit a legal one which rakes in loads of money for the government, and for the bar and club owners.
Love
Sunanda xxx
Hi, I remember bringing this up :020: (pardon the pun), some time back about not really understanding what was so great about chucking x amount of pints down your throat and then throwing up. Where is the fun and the camaraderie in that!!
Energylz, you said that it's the time for lots of freshers starting up at Uni and enjoying their new found freedom. To an extent I agree with that and maybe to start with there is a period of excess drinking with the Uni bars being cheap. My daughter was at Nottingham which is notorious for binge drinkers out on the street at weekend and she said that once the students had settled in, they very rarely went out on the raz at weekends, mostly because they didn't want to get caught up with the regulars who could be a tricky bunch to deal with when they were so drunk and aggressive.
It is a very sad indictment on today's society that this seems to be the norm for a great night out! How do you communicate with your friends when you so out of it?
Love
I wasn't the Hippie passing the spliff around.......I was the biker selling 'Blues and dexies'....mothers little helpers......as the Stones sang;You get what you want, but you can't always get what you need......
I was lucky enough to break away from that lifestyle, but I left behind swathes of family and friends still suffering at the mercy of the drug-dealers
and their bed-fellow......Demon Alcohol . It's always readily available 24/7.
I rang my sister last night, who came down to stay with us, just a few weeks ago.......who is in recovery for breast cancer........she was three parts to the wind....and obviously high on something.....what can you do?
Oakapple
I'm with you on this, Sunanda. Twenty years ago or more ago, we spent a Friday evening in Newcastle and were astonished by the scenes there - the heavy drinking, bouncers on pub doors, etc. To innocent Londoners like us, it was a real eye-opener. Now, sadly, that is the norm everywhere - not just in places you might expect it, but in "genteel" places such as Bath, Harrogate and Ilkley.
We enjoy a drink and we tried to bring up our eldest to be a responsible drinker, but failed completely. She wouldn't drink with us (and rarely does now at the age of 20) because she said she didn't like the taste. But that hasn't stopped her becoming a formidable drinker when out with her mates. The sad thing is that she, and most of her friends, regard drink as something to be downed as quickly as possible simply to get pissed. She's a student in York now and her greatest boast last year, her first as a student, was that she won a pub quiz tie-breaker that involved drinking FOUR PINTS faster than the bloke from the other team. And that was on top, of course, of everything she had already drunk.
I spent an evening with her and her friends in York at the end of last term, and I was horrified by the amount the girls were putting away. One was keeping a tally chalked up on her arm and it started with six pints of "diesel" - mix of lager, cider and blackcurrant. It then went on to several vodka and Red Bulls and assorted other drinks. I have to say that I do fear for the future health of these girls.
Hi sunanda
The problem in Bath was highlighted on TV recently, on BBC1's Points West regional news.
I just had a quick look online for more, and there's this:
and
http://www.badaservices.org.uk/index.html
Press release from Bath Area Drugs Advisory Service (BADAS)
Though we all know that the problem is widespread, it does seem that Bath is being highlighted at the moment. How horrid for you though!
Holistic
I think that most areas will have such problems - the youngsters who have just started at college - and most 16 year olds are able to get into some pubs - will not yet know their limit, drink to excess and then be ill - hopefully a lot of them will realise that hangovers are not nice and learn to moderate their drinking.
I was born in the 60's but as soon as i got to college we would hit the pubs in town, oh and did we hit them, it was always a pub crawl with some of us having to throw drinks down to keep up, we drank to the excess, we were noisy, not many of us chucked up in public - that is just disgusting - well we probably did but managed to wait till we got home.
Drinking is made easier today because of the alco pops and slammers - we used to drink sangria in a spannish bar and dance on the tables, and fall off of the tables - by day i was a respectable college girl, by night you could have called me an immature teenager out to enjoy herself to the max - i suspect things haven't changed. By 21 i had calmed down, grown up, quit the need to damage my liver and enjoyed a more relaxing night out.
I don't think that we all chucked up though like they do today - maybe there should be some fine in place for people who do puke on the pavement - a bit like dogs fouling - not that that problem is getting any better.
Hi,
I found this interesting article in my local paper:-
http://archive.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/2007/6/30/326764.html
I have been brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne. The night life is second to none. Yes we do go out without our coats in winter - it is true. After a few drinks you don't feel the cold. However, I don't think today's culture comes from the sixties or seventies, or any past era, it comes from here and now. From happy hours, two for one drinks, alcho pops and longer opening hours. All these things encourage drinking and for longer periods over one night. We used to go out about 8pm and pubs closed by 10.30pm we then went on to a night club or went home. Now they seem to start straight after work for happy hours or promotion hours as they call them now and go on all night.
I don't think there is much that can be done about it. It's far too big a problem. It's the police and thr ambulance service I feel sorry for as it iis them who deal with the aftermath.