‘National Scandal’: Is Britain’s Binge Drinking Epidemic Indicative of a Deeper Social Problem?
- Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:06am by
Becket Adams
- Print »
- Email »
“The girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blond heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks,” the Associated Press report begins.
The report doesn’t get any better:
It’s an hour to midnight on Friday, and the two girls, who look no older than 18, are being wheeled from an ambulance to a clinic set up discreetly in a dark alley in London’s Soho entertainment district.
They’re the first of many to be picked up on this night by the ambulance, known as a “booze bus,” and carried to the clinic — both government services dedicated to keeping drunk people out of trouble, and out of emergency rooms.
Binge drinking in Britain has reached crisis levels, with Prime Minister David Cameron referring to it as a “national scandal,” and it‘s costing the country’s already-strained public healthcare system an estimated $4.4 billion a year.
Why does it cost that much? Let’s put it this way: if you have enough people getting fall down, blackout drunk on a regular basis, the cost of medical treatment for those who get hurt in the booze-fueled rages starts to add up.
Photo courtesy: Undhimmi.com
But there is another major health issued connected to the binging epidemic: liver disease.
“Liver disease is on the rise in Britain, increasing by 25 percent in the last decade and causing a record level of deaths,” the AP reports.
“Undoubtedly professionals are seeing more (patients) in their late-20s to mid-30s, which would have been unusual 20 years ago,” said Chris Day, a liver disease specialist at Newcastle University.
Doctors also believe that an increase in obesity has contributed to the rise in liver problems.
“The headline-grabbing figures about ever-younger liver disease victims may seem to suggest that Britain has quite recently turned into a nation of raging alcoholics,” the AP story continues.
However, “most experts agree that Britons, on the whole, don’t drink more than other Europeans — in fact, overall alcohol consumption levels here have come down since the mid 2000s,” the report adds.
Photo courtesy: London Evening Standard
But because binging is still an expensive problem despite the decline in the national average, many analysts believe that it’s an issue caused by one specific group.
The AP’s sordid description of British drinking parties continues:
On the streets of Soho, most people are too busy drinking to notice passed-out partyers. The streets, lined with pubs and nightclubs, are just beginning to get rowdy: Men chasing each other and shrieking like teenagers; women stumbling and falling over in their too-short skirts and high heels. Soon the sidewalks are littered with empty beer bottles and reeking puddles.
[...]
Anyone who‘s gone out on a Friday night in any of Britain’s larger towns and cities will be familiar with boozed out groups of people shouting, brawling and causing a scene as they spill out of bars and pubs. Commuters aren’t immune to the antics — especially on evenings when soccer matches are on.
Who are these people and why do they binge?
Image courtesy Belle News
Based on the fact that Britain’s “national scandal” is more of a recent problem, and the fact that doctors are seeing more liver diseases in patients ages 18-30, we can conclude that the problem is more or less exclusive to the younger generations.
Social workers say “lax control of retail sales and cheap alcohol…makes it easy for young people to experiment with liquor“ and the government hopes to ”curb the excess by introducing a minimum price for each unit of alcohol sold,” the AP reports.
But is the problem really just the drinking age and alcohol being affordable?
Increasing the legal age or the price of alcohol probably won’t stop the binging — it’ll just make it more expensive. Like most social problems, could Britain’s “national scandal” be tied to a cultural failing?
Could the fact that the binging problem is exclusive to Britons ages 18-30 have anything to do with the West’s growing acceptance of expanding government and apathy towards the crumbling of the family unit?
“The upbringing of children in much of Britain is a witches’ brew of sentimentality, brutality, and neglect, in which overindulgence in the latest fashions, toys, or clothes and television in the bedroom are regarded as the highest — indeed only — manifestations of tender concern for a child’s welfare,” Dr. Theodore Dalrymple wrote in 2004 essay featured in “Our Culture, What’s Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses.”
Photo courtesy: Travel Between The Pages
This “witches’ brew” is amplified by the fact that Britain’s welfare state “makes it possible, and sometimes advantageous” for men to abandon their children, thus condemning mothers to a life of hardship and children to a life of “brutality, poverty, abuse, and hopelessness.”
“[T]he state absolves [men] from all responsibility for their children. The state is now father to the child,” Dalrymple writes.
But it’s a two-way street. The state, he notes, also makes it “advantageous for a mother to put herself at a disadvantage, to be a single mother, without support from the fathers of the children and dependent on the state for income. She is then a priority; she won’t pay local taxes, rent, or utility bills.”
Is it surprising then that a childhood filled with “neglect, cruelty, sadism, and joyous malignity” but also an overindulgence of material goods should lead to a life of binge drinking as it has for an alarming number of Britons?
Let’s pause for a moment to make two points. First, the purpose of this article is to illustrate what happens when the individual surrenders personal responsibility, and therefore his real freedom of choice, in hopes that the state will take care of him.
It is not the purpose of this article to say that Britain is worse off than any other country. Indeed, in regards to growing government and the weakening of the family unit, Britain is pretty much on par with the rest of the West.
This brings us to our second point: the state.
It can be argued that the state would have no power if it weren’t for those in it. So while Britain’s welfare state may be contributing to less-than-desirable conditions, it’s only because the people have empowered it to do so.
Now we are brought to what many believe is the real problem.
“There has been an unholy alliance between those on the left, who believe that man is endowed with rights but no duties, and libertarians on the right, who believe that consumer choice is the answer to all social questions,” Dalrymple writes.
What happens when you marry these two mindsets? People will eventually believe that they have a right to do whatever they, whenever they want, because “everything is merely a matter of choice.”
And that’s where a possible breakdown in the family unit would occur. “I do what I want” and “I’ve earned it” are not exactly the best sentiments to have if, you know, you’re procreating.
So what’s to be done? Simply put, to address the problems being exacerbated by the state, one must address the problems in the culture.
It’s not so much that man’s pursuit of wants, reinforced by an accommodating state, has, in the case of Britain, resulted in “divorce [being] the norm” and a 40 percent out-of-wedlock birthrate — it‘s that people won’t identify these things as strains on society (because to so would challenge “personal choice”).
Until societies are willing and able to identify said strains, to explore why Britons ages 18-30 are engaging in expensive and destructive behavior, to discourage what have proven to be harmful, licentious, and self-centered lifestyles and encourage more meaningful, healthier, and economically minded ones, things like binge drinking epidemics will become the norm.
But who wants to do that? After all, it‘s much easier to address society’s problems with new taxes and government programs.
And Lord knows you can never have too many government programs.
“Ultimately the moral cowardice of the intellectual and political elites is responsible for the continuing social disaster that has overtaken Britain,” Dalrymple’s writes in his 2004 essay.
“A sharp economic downturn would expose how far the policies of successive governments…have atomized British society, so that all social solidarity within families and communities, so protective in times of hardship, has been destroyed,” the essay adds.
This story has been updated.
Popular Stories
Does Misstated Marathon Claim Prove Paul Ryan Is Dishonest? (POLL) 707 Comments
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 560 Comments
‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 378 Comments
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 370 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 363 Comments
Faith
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 370 Comments
Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 378 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 300 Comments- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 149 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 302 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 370 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (65)
term limits for congress
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:06amAll of the government assistance in the US (federal and local) for un-wed mothers is contingent on having no man/husband in the picture. Even if a man is willing to be in the picture – not allowed. Uh oh…
Don’t worry, UK. Sharia will be there to put Humpty Dumpty together again when you finally fall off the wall. Was it an accident? Or, were you pushed?
Report Post »AmericanFightingMan1
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:10amWe are observing the suicide of a people. No law can save people from themselves. People are willingly leading themselves to slaughter. Drink, spend, screw, abort; it’s all a death march.
You want happiness? Sobriety, family, faith, work, save, prepare, fight when necessary. This is the only way to salvation.
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:59amBinging – Invented by the Brits, perfected by the Yanks! But, if you think UK is bad, try Australia or Hong Kong! LOL
But the world’s best bakaro benjo drinkers are in Tokyo…
It ain’t tea…
Report Post »The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:49amWe’re already here, if people haven’t noticed. The only reason this plague has not reached middle America, the fly-over states, is because it has been quarantined to cities and urban areas.
Report Post »rdietz7
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:05amThere’s a way to make a $buck$ off this.
Report Post »Deeduck
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:00amFunny that the desperate straits of western culture coincide with the marginalization of Christianity. Any secularists/atheists/libertarians care to debate that point? No doubt they will continue to claim that this is all the fault of Christians, much like the Obamists still pointing the finger at Bush ad nauseum. If you humanists can’t admit that moral relativism is a bankrupt, vacuous philosophy that leads to societal collapse, why should we listen to you pontificate on any subject?
Report Post »redneckdiver
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:12amI’d just like to debate your mischaracterization of libertarians. Libertarian != libertine, nor are we all humanists, relativists, and secularists. Nor do we want people to go and be self-destructive. We only want to pursue methods of reducing the impact of bad behavior in ways that don’t lead to the destruction of civil rights by the state.
Report Post »Brainmuffin
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 12:19pmI‘m betting you don’t know what a Libertarian is.
Report Post »carl_in_ohio
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 3:11pmwell put!
Report Post »I totally agree!
AMENDMENT
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:53amThe weekend Pub and Chippy/Curry House replaced the Church and its been that way all over the UK for over 40yrs.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 5:32pmAgree.
Report Post »manutd0720
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:02amI agree it is sad when I visit freinds in Manchester. I’ve also noticed a couple of beautiful old churches being converted to mosques. Makes me sad to see a once great nation being systematically destroyed by the philosophies that came from our bitter enemies the French with the enlightenment.
Report Post »HuskerDave
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:37amThe concept of shifting all the responsibilities in life to government, so that the people can live consequence-free lives is straight out of Marxist ideology. It’s a pipe dream, and the failures that follow are inevitable. People without responsibility live lives without meaning. They start looking for fulfillment in drugs, alcohol, dangerously casual sex, “extreme” (dangerous) sports, and false anarchist movements.
Report Post »lamarlamar
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:34amNow let’s see………..Socialist Russia, boozers, drunks,…….Socialist China, homemade booze, drunks,……Socialist England, cheap booze, drunks. What is the common denominator? Oh yes, booze!!! Maybe there should be a higher tax on booze!!! This is what happens when the state becomes your family. Stand up men of the world and MAN UP!!! Put on some pants and become men to your wives and children!!! BE THE MEN THAT G-D INTENDED!!!
Report Post »hi
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:33amThey have bad teeth too.
Socialism.
Report Post »Chromo200
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:31amThe result of “You Owe Me”. The result of selling this BS about self esteem. The result of encouraging the dependence on Atheism. The result of “it is not my fault, it is the rich, and I have a miserable life”.
Report Post »flashback@liarinchief
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 2:41pmA smoking ban seemed like a good idea at first take away the Tobbaco now you have obesity epidemics and liver disease epidemics increased drug use make up your minds. A smoke filled Pub is enough to keep me away.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:30amI like Britain and all Anglo-Saxon culture in principle, theoretically, academically. But in practice, it always looks like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Street_and_Gin_Lane
Report Post »TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:30amThe saddest part is our youth are headed on this same trajectory and in light speed…I believe this is why Soros is working so incredibly hard to legalize marajuana because it dulls the mind, reduces your ability to really care about anything and gets you addicted quicker on illicit drugs. This is all part and parcel to destroy our society into oblivion and it is on a fast track to hell.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:14am@TEARS FOR AMERICA
Report Post »Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:30am
‘… legalize marajuana because it dulls the mind, reduces your ability to really care about anything and gets you addicted quicker on illicit drugs.’
*********************
So incredibly untrue. Marijuana is a flowering plant that reduces anxiety, depression and nausea, stimulates appetite and creativity, and is a gift from nature to human beings. It is a marvel of nature.
Git-R-Done
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:11pmBaikonur – No wonder you’re such a crazy leftist. The marijuana impairs one’s ability to think. Marijuana is also worse for you than cigarettes. At least cigarettes don‘t impair one’s judgment.
Report Post »Leslie Anne
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:30amIf I had to live under the hopeless social, regulatory, and economic conditions they’re living under, I’d probably be hitting up the bottle now-n-then, too. Oh well, the Muslims will eventually overtake that area and Sharia Law will clear up the drinking problems, etc. Then they’ll have new problems to worry about.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:28amGreat Britain is no shining Albion. Like all Americans, I have always been a huge Anglophile. Then I visted Great Britain. The Dickensian nightmare of hteir shabby, pessimistic, constantly compaining dark brown life is exactly what you would imagine in a TV movie about Jack the Ripper or an Oliver Twist reproduction today. Gross culture. The French are billions and billions of times better.
Report Post »Joisey
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:20amThis is what happens to a nation’s 18-30 demographic that is infantilized by government, and have their hopes of owning a business and raising a family destroyed by socialism. If government enables you to act like an irresponsible child, then that‘s what you’ll do. Why work? The government will just tax away whatever you make anyway. You’ll never be able to save and get ahead. Why get married and have children? The state will tell you how to raise your children anyway, and easy divorce laws make it a bad investment for men.
Families destroyed. Entrepreneurism destroyed. Western Civ destroyed. Mission Accomplished, commie bastards! Time to get used to having your head on the ground permanently, Britons, as dhimmi in a new ****** dictatorship.
Report Post »BeeAlert
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:26amDon’t happen to have just been reading “Death of the Grownup”, have you? I just finished it, all too true. I asked my 20 year-old “What’s your favorite thing about western civilization?” and she said, “As compared to what?” And this is after Christian school…
Report Post »Buddynoel
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:17amThe US Army always had a cure for binge drinking. I remember commanders waking us up at 5am for a five-mile run. About 1000 yards into that run – you were either cured or in for an entire day worth of exercise. It was best to finish that five miles because your family would not be seeing you for a while if you failed.Not sure how to translate this to civilian life, but someone should try.
Report Post »wewantchillywilly
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:17amlet them all drown in their own vomit for all i care. and that goes for anybody that can’t handle their booze. i don’t care where their from.
that’s the greatness of liberty: nobody should stop you from drinking/doing drugs/ gambling, etc if you’re too irresponsible to stop. only YOU should stop on your own account. just let the person fall off a cliff if they won’t get it together. i have no obligation to help them. and neither do you. governments should not be picking up the tab for reckless morons. you send the moron the bill, not the government. send them a fine in addition to medical bills, for wasting the hospital staffs’ time.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:16amEvery drunk has an excuse for drinking.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:35amI sense a theme.
Report Post »lexington_green
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:08amthe deeper problem? life sucks so bad in this socialized democracy that surveils you 24-7 and has such crappy weather that you have to stay wasted all the time just to get by. and this is the model obama wants to copy, but with nicer weather. yay.
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:14amWho do you think created India Pale Ale? Sorry blokes! Get a grip!
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:46amBritain is finished. Europe is finished. And if we continue down the same road, as President Obama wishes U.S. to do, we’ll also be finished!
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:44amThe next entrepreneur in Btitian will be working with black market livers.
Report Post »Is the guy in the last pic holding a sword?
biohazard23
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 9:07amAffirmative. They’re all looney over there, more so in Ireland. Well, at least they were the last time I had to visit.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:35am“The girls slumped in wheelchairs look barely conscious, their blond heads lolling above the plastic vomit bags tied like bibs around their necks…”
A study was completed recently polling women across Europe regarding drinking and sex. It stated that most women needed to be buzzed or smashed to have sex with their male counterparts in this part of the world. I think Great Britain is considered European even though not part of the mainland.
On a lighter note, I would think Prince Charles would needing a pretty good buzz (or even smashed) to get jiggy with Camilla. Oh well…. back to the story.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:50amCongratulations, you stopped the Ron Paul campaign! Now work on Obama please. :-)
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:06amGONZO. Pffft.
Report Post »macpappy
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:33amWell, the next logical step for the nanny state citizens would be to stay drunk all the time. I mean if you are a welfare baby, you may as well live up to your full potential and become the town drunk. Hell, this is not new; look at the Irish, the American Indian, and our own black gettos.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:42amDifference between the Irish and the American Indian and the inhabitants of the Ghetto, is that the Irish and the American Indian can still build a skyscraper or a bridge while three sheets to the wind. It all depends on how you hold your liquor… lol.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:21am@TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Report Post »Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:42am
‘Difference between the Irish and the American Indian and the inhabitants of the Ghetto, is that the Irish and the American Indian can still build a skyscraper or a bridge while three sheets to the wind. It all depends on how you hold your liquor… lol.’
*****************
The Irish and the American Indians, as well as Eastern Europeans, are genetically predisposed to alcoholism, which is nothing to boast about. As a matter of fact, it is a handicap. Some studies show this genetic predisposition to be an allergy.
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:58amBAIK. Do you see my comment as boasting? Although “genetics” plays a very big part in alcoholism (alcoholic homes and parents) along with children born to alcoholic parents who might be raised in homes without alcohol abuse or addiction can also predisposed.
You can use my tongue-in-cheek comment to make a point if you like, but don’t lump “everyone” in with your assessment, or someone else’s assessment because of their region of ancestry. Study or no study, allergy or no allergy.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:16am@TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:58am
‘BAIK. Do you see my comment as boasting?’
********************
In your own words:
@TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Report Post »Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:42am
‘Difference between the Irish and the American Indian and the inhabitants of the Ghetto, is that the Irish and the American Indian can still build a skyscraper or a bridge while three sheets to the wind. It all depends on how you hold your liquor… lol.’
TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 12:04pmBAIK. As I wrote… tongue in cheek. Being 100% Irish and at best a “minor league” social drinker from a famiily of non-drinkers, I can also make tongue-in-cheek comments regarding Irish cooking.
What is an Irish 7 course meal? A six pack and a potato.
My words repeated back to me show me nothing but your lack of a sense humor and maybe your particular way of lobbing an ancestral insult/stereotype along with the original poster.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 12:26pmBAIK…. My words from previous comment.
“…your particular way of lobbing an ancestral insult/stereotype along with the original poster.”
as per your other comment and not my words of humor.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:25amI think there is a good, ancient, Truth Book out here that has the cure……spelled B-I-B-L-E
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 10:25amyes but they are working so hard in europe to outlaw everything regarding its truth. this is the consequence of a secular morally bankrupt society. coming soon to the united states. we need a revival world wide.
Report Post »moussiagilda
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:19amI am Miss Carry Nation without the hatchet. Binge drinking is THE problem. The problem.
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on May 16, 2012 at 11:20am@moussiagilda
Report Post »Posted on May 16, 2012 at 8:19am
‘I am Miss Carry Nation without the hatchet. Binge drinking is THE problem. The problem.’
***************
Lol, with the hatchet, baby.