This subject has raised its ugly head here in the UK yet again. For those who have no idea what it is about, binge drinking is the term for getting as much alcohol down your throat as you can before closing time.
Most pubs close at 11.00pm, some do have late licences at week-ends. Young people have been drinking for 3 or 4 hours and invariably end up getting drunk.Fighting often follows, as nearly all the pubs in the town are closing at the same time and there are hundreds of people on the streets.
Is it time for our leaders to radically change the licencing laws to remove set opening hours and allow landlords to open and close at times they think are appropriate?

Are you saying that even on a quiet night with no patrons the publican can't close until the specified time? Seems crazy.

On saying that though - pubs here have a set close time for whatever licence they have ... binge drinking is still rampant though. One pub I used to frequent had a 24 hour license and would close up when the takings went below a certain amount over half an hour.

Extending drinking times should reduce the number of binge drinkers on the streets at any one time. This, in theory, ought to mean less trouble. In practice it only needs a few drunken people to meet up for a fight to ensue, which will no doubt bring others out on the street to either watch or join in.

It won't have the desired effect of making binge drinkers slow down their imbibing rate. I'm pretty sure they'll still get as much alcohol down themselves as quickly as possible. This is just the normal week-end way of life for many young people. The benchmark of a good night seems to be what stories can be told the next day about how drunk they got, how much they don't remember and not being able to walk etc.

Like many, I have been like that a number of times in my life. The difference is that it was an occasional thing for me and I never went out with the intention of getting that way. Binge drinkers set out to get completely drunk very quickly and tend to do so frequently.

Copago can you imagine how frustrating it would be to arrive at a pub for a drink only to find the landlord had shut early? You might have arranged to meet a group of friends there - nah, give me set hours and you know where you are, and with me it is at home in front of the telly or this machine.

In Glasgow, the City Council - in their infinite wisdom - have decided to ban "Happy Hours", in their first thrust of the offensive against endemic binge drinking.

What they've actually done is spoil fun for a lot of moderate drinkers on a tight budget and spoil business for city-centre traders who relied upon such offers to attract punters in an increasingly competitive market. Happy hours were god-sends for weary office-dwellers after a hard shift on the phones and the glaring screens, a chance to unwind without shelling out too much cash before heading home for some well deserved sleep.

Not now though. All the bars are legally bound to maintain the same prices for all drinks at all times of the day.

It's a bit like tobacco advertising. It doesn't necessarily encourage people to smoke, just to change brands. The happy hour didn't encourage binge drinking, just encouraged people to change venue within a certain period of time (usually 5 - 8). People in Glasgow will continue to drink just as much as they want to - and there is a problem here in that respect - but the licensing laws are working against all the people here.

Quite apart from that, I used to work shifts finishing at 11pm, and not being able to go for a drink if you felt like it without paying to get into a noisy, smelly club was a pain in the a*se!

Some folk have got no common sense, especially those in local government!