Binge drinking has reached crisis levels in Britain, health experts say, costing the cash-strapped National Health Service 2.7 billion pounds (US$4.4 billion) a year, including the cost of hospital admissions related to booze-fueled violence and longer-term health problems. Unlike all other major health threats, liver disease is on the rise in Britain, increasing by 25 percent in the last decade and causing a record level of deaths, according to recent government figures.
Doctors believe rising obesity is combining with heavy drinking to fuel the spike in liver disease, which is hitting more young people than ever.
"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.
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.
Such public displays of extreme drunkenness are inexplicable and shocking to many foreigners living in Britain, even those who hail from heavy drinking cultures.
Hopefully this will be an interesting discussion. So guys, is it really all that bad over there?
srussell0018
Pussies
Moongoose
I take offence that the article mentions women in their too-short skirts. Im going to take a stance here, no skirt is to short.
Lagrangian
Oh please puritanical holier than thou article from the Huffington **** and her stinking crew of pseudo journalists.
ing puritans.
Sushipunk
quote:
Originally posted by srussell0018
Pussies
Perfect Irish response :stongue:
My Australian response is roughly the same.
Weak as piss :o
Jarvmeister
*sensible hat on*
It has to be said that over here (UK, not just England) the attitude to drinking has changed massively in the last 18-20 years.
And to be perfectly honest, the resources to control and police the massive increase in drunk people is stretched to breaking point. Something needs to be done, I don't know what, but something is needed. And whatever it is won't be a quick fix - it took nearly 2 decades to get out of hand, it'll take about the same amount of time again to bring it under control. My guess is it won't happen and things will get a lot worse before they start to get any better.
I've been drinking all over the world. I don't recall ever feeling the same feeling of anarchy and chaos that I've felt when drinking in the well known party towns of say Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff or Newcastle. But even the small towns like the one I live in have similar issues.
The kids these days think it's the norm to go out, get absolutely twatted, spew all over the place and make a ing mess, fight with randoms who don't deserve it, and while I was no angel when I was in my early drinking years, I never took leave of my senses.
So, yeah, it's a problem. And it stops some people from wanting to go out into certain areas at night time.
Joss Weatherby
Didn't the Danish say they need to address their drinking problems as well? Then again they don't seem as likely to just be random hooligans... Then again I know some pretty dumb/mean Danes haha.
OrangestO
I'm sure many of them are still drinking after this:
Originally posted by Sushipunk
Perfect Irish response :stongue:
My Australian response is roughly the same.
Weak as piss :o
It's not that it's weak, it's that people are drinking so much (and not good stuff, just any old they can get including the dangerous bootleged vodka etc) and there are indeed going to have allsorts of health issues. Not that I care, as someone who knows his limits and doesn't see the need to act like a knob all of the time, I'll be happily running around whilst they all need liver transplants. It's a pandemic though of idiots on the streets who get tanked up because they have nothing better to do with their lives and then cause trouble for those who don't generally deserve it. The problem is that as our country is getting more & more morbidly obese like America, every supermarkets offers always include alcohol at well under the prices you'd pay if you went to a pub or something, hence pubs are struggling to exist. Rather than discounting things which can be ingredients for good meals, meats, vegetables, fruits etc, they discount ready meals or crap food and then they wonder why it's going to cost the NHS so much to deal with. Sorta merging to liras thread now but this morning at the bus stop a girl was eating a massive bacon sandwich, dropped a piece of bacon onto the pavement, picked it up & finished it off. Gross.
Adam420
quote:
Originally posted by Sushipunk
Perfect Irish response :stongue:
My Australian response is roughly the same.
Weak as piss :o
Adam420
quote:
Originally posted by Jarvmeister
*sensible hat on*
It has to be said that over here (UK, not just England) the attitude to drinking has changed massively in the last 18-20 years.
And to be perfectly honest, the resources to control and police the massive increase in drunk people is stretched to breaking point. Something needs to be done, I don't know what, but something is needed. And whatever it is won't be a quick fix - it took nearly 2 decades to get out of hand, it'll take about the same amount of time again to bring it under control. My guess is it won't happen and things will get a lot worse before they start to get any better.
I've been drinking all over the world. I don't recall ever feeling the same feeling of anarchy and chaos that I've felt when drinking in the well known party towns of say Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff or Newcastle. But even the small towns like the one I live in have similar issues.
The kids these days think it's the norm to go out, get absolutely twatted, spew all over the place and make a ing mess, fight with randoms who don't deserve it, and while I was no angel when I was in my early drinking years, I never took leave of my senses.
So, yeah, it's a problem. And it stops some people from wanting to go out into certain areas at night time.
cocaine would solve most of those problems
dj_alfi
Bacon is the exemption to the x second rule. You ALWAYS pick up bacon.
