Y Safle

This weekend carried the news of calls to raise the legal age in the UK for drinking to 21 (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6551887.stm). This amid the realisation that the drinking culture in the UK is spiralling out of control.

Thanks, Tony Blair, for “dealing” with the problem by allowing pubs to open 24 hours a day! Now we are seeing more and more incidents in the early hours of the morning - right up to 5.00AM and beyond.

This week the local news is full of details about a student who suffered spinal injuries jumping or falling from Aberystwyth’s pier to the beach below. This event happening well into the early hours of the morning after a night of drinking. Worse, the event comes only a year or so after a similar incident when a student died at almost the exact same place.

A couple of years ago, a student died after falling from his bedroom window, having been drinking all night.

One must feel huge sympathy for the family of these victims of our pub culture, but there remains a great deal of denial about the extent of the problem. The father of the student who fell from his window decided to campaign to ensure no such tragedy occurred again. But instead of campaigning for a reduction of the drinking hours, or for increasing the legal age for drinking, or for introduction of smart cards that limit consumption, or for prosecution of publicans who serve people when they are drunk… instead of even considering that the drinking culture is at fault, he instead launched a campaign to get sash windows banned!

Perhaps we should also have crash matting on the pavements!

Or perhaps we should get a clue and take the hard choice to begin to limit the overconsumption of the most dangerous mind altering drug in our society.

In a recent news story, the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, reported that he had been mugged on his way home from a drinks reception. However, later CCTV evidence came to light that suggested he had been drunk, and that he had broken into a vehicle on his way home.

Asked about this evidence, Tom Butler replied that he had amnesia and was undergoing extensive medical tests, but in his defence he said:

“Normally, at a reception, I will have a glass or two of wine. I’m very careful. “I don’t get drunk frequently. I would not be able to do my job if I got drunk. I certainly don’t think it’s a resigning matter.”

I think the key point is the line I don’t get drunk frequently.

From which we may adduce that the Bishop does get drunk, only infrequently.

And if he gets drunk, is it really “entirely out of character” as he had put it?

There is a debate amongst Christians about alcoholic beverages. Many Christians abstain entirely from such drinks on grounds that they are harmful to ourselves and society, and for some good biblical reasons.

Other Christians argue that Jesus drank wine, and the Bible never prohibits drinking - as long as it is in moderation.

But what we see here is an issue of a higher standard that ought to apply to our Christian leaders. If someone is given authority in the Church, the Paul is quite specific about the higher standards of conduct and propriety that relate to such a man and his family.

I would stop short of asking the Bishop of Southwark to resign - but he really needs to consider his attitude to alcohol in a culture that is destroying itself through over indulgence in this recreational drug. He may believe that alcohol is lawful to Christians, but in terms of his testimony it is really not hepful. Abstinence would be a better option.

The Independent tells us that alcohol is killing 22,000 Britons a year. That is three times the figure given by government estimates, but it includes figures the government ignores - where alcohol is the indirect cause of death. When drunk people have accidents or harm or kill themselves, these are still alcohol related deaths.

In Abersytwyth a year or two back a man fell from a windoow after a night of heavy drinking. This tragedy was certainly avoidable, but it is unfortunate that his father - instead of campaigning against alcohol abuse - decided to start a campaign to have sash windows removed from Victorian properties in the town.

Unable to cope with the fact that alcohol is causing our nation great social harm, we look at incidentals. No doubt we can also expect campaigns against unfenced cliff edges, hard road services, cars that can driven by drunk drivers and just about every other means by which someone who has deliberately drink away all thair common sense might kill themself.

But control drinking? That is not on.

The UK has a terrible problem with binge drinking and drunkenness. Tony Blair’s solution was to let the pubs open even later into the early hours of the morning. Now we can drink 24 hours a day, and are we better for it? Of course not. Binge drinking is just getting worse and worse.

And 22,000 lives are lost every year because we are not willing to stop the recreational drug use of the most dangerous drug in the world.