When we consider this hypocrisy, we might also consider the ludicrous tainting of drunken youths as binge drinkers and the reluctance to reflect too carefully on the binge economy so readily embraced by successive governments. The Strategy Unit document did a good job in setting out the available evidence and suggests more education, working in partnership with the alcohol industry, improved treatment facilities and a clampdown on disorder in the night-time economy.
Yet as Room (2004) notes, these approaches have been ineffective in reducing alcohol-related maladies, of which public drunkenness is merely the most vivid. This ineffectiveness is, of course, highlighted by the government’s campaign to deregulate the licensing laws, a market-led campaign move designed to increase availability. The total value of the UK alcohol industry’s promotional activity is in excess of £500 million, and research shows that such campaigns are mainly directed at the younger end of the adult market.Teenagers identify alcohol advertising as their favourite category of adverts, adverts that link alcohol consumption with sexual and social attainment (Dring and Hope, 2001).
Despite the social costs of alcohol, the government values the jobs, urban regeneration and taxation that it derives from the industry
Growing concerns in the medical profession with alcohol marketing campaigns directed at young people have led the British Medical Association to call for such deliberate targeting to be made illegal. As Figure 5c suggests, alcohol consumption now plays a major role in children’s lifestyles.
The issue of binge drinking highlights many of the problems that are apparent in modern society.Yet despite the plethora of research that engages with these problems, the terrain remains contested. Currently, it is the logic of the market and not the logic derived from careful data analysis that informs the everyday reality of the government’s policy on alcohol. In such a confused environment, the binge drinker has captured the nation’s headlines.Yet it is the obscene binge of simple economic greed that stymies effective political action.
Alcohol-related death rates have been rising and it is older drinkers in their middle years who are most likely to succumb
Figure 5c: Percentage of children drinking alcohol at least once a week in England by gender and age| Age | Boys | Girls |
|---|
| 11 | 5% | 5% |
| 12 | 11% | 9% |
| 13 | 18% | 19% |
| 14 | 34% | 31% |
| 15 | 52% | 46% |
Source: Office for National Statistics, 2005