Reply to: Alcohol Concern

[PAH]

Also we only have 1 park with a cycleway (usually covered in dog tulip) so it is hard to teach the kids to cycle.

Cycling's too dangerous these days. Too much traffic, and too many idiots. Safest way is probably on canal paths or off-road mountain bike trails.

At least the a-hole who knocked me off my bicycle when I was younger was a learner driver. Anyone else would probably have been going much faster and I'd have been splattered all over the road.

[BrilloPad]

Or nowhere better to go, now all the parks and playing fields are being sold off for development, and swimming pools closed down, and woods built over.

We have loads of parks round here - but all close 2 hours before sunset. The teens can make it in but not young kids. Also we only have 1 park with a cycleway (usually covered in dog sh1t) so it is hard to teach the kids to cycle.

[TheFaQQer]

Indeed, that why it would have to be enforced as an alternative to asbos and other 'solutions' that are nothing more than papering over the problem.

A curfew after dark for youngsters. Any found hanging around in gangs on the streets are sent to boot-camp in the evenings for several months.

Kids kicking the crap out of police cars because all the fuzz can do is take them home in the hope their parents give a crap, shows just how wrong the authorities have got it at the moment.

shot on sight

Allow the police to kill vermin, and they'd soon stop.

[Marina]

The common excuse for them hanging around the streets is they have nothing better to do. ..

Or nowhere better to go, now all the parks and playing fields are being sold off for development, and swimming pools closed down, and woods built over.

[PAH]

I assume that there is nothing stopping these youths that are hanging around the streets from actually volunteering to join a community scheme so I doubt that they would do so without some threat of penalty.

Indeed, that why it would have to be enforced as an alternative to asbos and other 'solutions' that are nothing more than papering over the problem.

A curfew after dark for youngsters. Any found hanging around in gangs on the streets are sent to boot-camp in the evenings for several months.

Kids kicking the crap out of police cars because all the fuzz can do is take them home in the hope their parents give a crap, shows just how wrong the authorities have got it at the moment.

[BrilloPad]

Exactly. My 13 yr old son came up with a similar idea regarding cigarrettes; put them up to a tenner a pack with £5 going to Imperial Cancer Research.

Perhaps if he donated a few hundered bags of sand to new liebour his idea might be implemented.

[KathyWoolfe]

The common excuse for them hanging around the streets is they have nothing better to do. Why not simply recruit them into community programmes if they insist on loitering on the streets?

I assume that there is nothing stopping these youths that are hanging around the streets from actually volunteering to join a community scheme so I doubt that they would do so without some threat of penalty.

[BrilloPad]

no matter what we oppose

The thing is that most people do not oppose. I spent years at the sharp end of f4j - the apathy out there is incredible.

Democracy is hard to fight for and easy to lose.

IMO the sun reading, big broether watching unwashed do not deserve so much as a vote.

[wobbegong]

I think most people would be more open to the idea if additional revenue raised went to alcohol concern or similar charities, instead of direct to the gov't coffers

Exactly. My 13 yr old son came up with a similar idea regarding cigarrettes; put them up to a tenner a pack with £5 going to Imperial Cancer Research.

[PAH]

None of that will solve the problem my granny highlighted the other day, where she gets accosted by the local underage scrotes almost threatening her to go and buy them alcohol. At least they offer to pay for it.

The common excuse for them hanging around the streets is they have nothing better to do. Why not simply recruit them into community programmes if they insist on loitering on the streets?

[Shimano105]

I think most people would be more open to the idea if additional revenue raised went to alcohol concern or similar charities, instead of direct to the gov't coffers

[KathyWoolfe]

The only way to be sure of someone's age is to make them prove it so they should be made to carry some proof of age......

......some thing like...........erm..........

Id cards!!

One of the biggest amateur sports in the USA is the forging of fake ID cards.
That means all the shops that sold goods to people would have to invest in ID card scanners to read the biometric data on the cards....

hmmmmmm.......... a plan B is being born......

[Bear]

Actually if you made the age to buy booze at a shop 21 and the age to drink in a pub 18 that would cut a lot of the problems out. If you look at the kids hanging around the streets, most are under 18. The reason being that they go to pubs rather than freezing their nuts off outside. What you see hanging about and causing problems tends to be kids aged 13 to 16. Often these can look 18 (espcially girls who can apply a bit of make up) however a 16 year old girl would struggle to look 21. That way it is easy for the retailer to refuse the sale.

The only way to be sure of someone's age is to make them prove it so they should be made to carry some proof of age......

......some thing like...........erm..........

Id cards!!

[KathyWoolfe]

Actually if you made the age to buy booze at a shop 21 and the age to drink in a pub 18 that would cut a lot of the problems out. If you look at the kids hanging around the streets, most are under 18. The reason being that they go to pubs rather than freezing their nuts off outside. What you see hanging about and causing problems tends to be kids aged 13 to 16. Often these can look 18 (espcially girls who can apply a bit of make up) however a 16 year old girl would struggle to look 21. That way it is easy for the retailer to refuse the sale.

It makes it even easier to get alcohol if kids can just go to the local supermarket to get it. I know checkout operators are told to check on ages but how many of them do this when they're pressured to keep their queue moving and out the door.

[BoredBloke]

That said - hitting retailers for selling to underage drinkers involves some kind of investigation and prosecution. It's much easier to make the cost of alcohol prohibitively expensive - and, gosh, if that hits those that it wasn't intended to, isn't that a shame...

Actually if you made the age to buy booze at a shop 21 and the age to drink in a pub 18 that would cut a lot of the problems out. If you look at the kids hanging around the streets, most are under 18. The reason being that they go to pubs rather than freezing their nuts off outside. What you see hanging about and causing problems tends to be kids aged 13 to 16. Often these can look 18 (espcially girls who can apply a bit of make up) however a 16 year old girl would struggle to look 21. That way it is easy for the retailer to refuse the sale.