PeteBrant

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Off-licence age could rise to 21

So 18 you are responsible enough to:

Buy a house
Get Married
Be a parent
Smoke
Have a full time job
Have a Mortgage
Have credit card
Die for your country
Join the police service
Be a fireman.

But not

Buy Alcohol in a shop.


Anyone else see the slight inconsistancy here?

RMA26

I walked into my local Co-op the other week to buy some beer

Bought my beer then headed to the cig counter to get some cigs, woman behind counter says to me

“Have you got any ID?”

I looked at her and said “You are joking right!?

“No” she said

I replied “Well I hardly think I’d be stood here with a crate of beer, asking for cigs if I wasn’t over 21 would i?”

Passing her my id I muttered “I am actually 29!!!”

She replied “You should take it as a compliment” miserable bitch didn’t even smile

myblackwrx

iTrader: (1)

I'm guessing you're not in Scotland,not under 21 so why worry

Is it really going to stop binge/underage drinking i don't think so

The Zohan

Tis stupid and shoert sighted and not tacking the root causes yet again - how NL just love to ignore the real problems that will take time and effort to fix!

Rights and responsibilities of the youngsdters and the parents lie at the root of this along with a lot fo the social problems we now have in spades.

I am sure this knee jerk approach will work in reducing the figures a bit but the problems will still remain. Kids will get booze, they have older brothers/sisters/mate and parents/relations who wil buy it for them.


Tackle the ****ing root problems NL FFS!

PeteBrant

It's not NL. It;s the SNP. ( in as much as the First Minister and Health Minister are SNP)

Jerome

If this new law comes in, it will make no difference other than make it slightly more inconvenient for 18-20 year olds to get their alcohol.

The existing law didn't stop me drinking in pubs and buying from off-licences etc when I was 16.

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

Most alcohol drunk by youngsters is obtained illegally from dodgy shop keepers, will it really bother them if the age goes up if they are supplying it to under aged drinkers already?

Shark Man

Not really going to work: even when I was 15 I was buying beer in pubs .

My mate is now 28...and he STILL gets ID'd in pubs LMAO

Markus

So you'd be able to drink alcohol in a pub, or at home at 18, however, to purchase alcohol from a supermarket or off licence you'd have to be 21? That's just totally daft. If they think that'd solve a problem they are very very much mistaken. If you're going to do this then raise the purchase and consumption limit to 21, if only to avoid confusion. Even still that won't stop anything, as said, others will purchase them the booze.

Big Col

most local shops near me have been over 21 through their own choice for quite a few years now. Yet, the local 16 year old neds are still seen with their bottle of buckie. This new law will make no difference.

bish667

iTrader: (1)

Its about a stupid a law as:
You can have sex at 16 and i believe you can get married at 16 but you cant buy adult mags or dvds until your 18 or over.
Where's the logic in that?

SJ_Skyline

You can't buy a knife to cut your wedding cake at 16 either

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Are you lot really as stupid as you sound? or can you just not read? Or maybe you just want to moan for the sake of moaning when the new law will probably not affect any of you anyway.

What they are trying to do is to prevent kids buying booze, going out in public to drink it and becoming a nuisance, they are not preventing 18 yr olds from going to a pub to drink! If you go to a pub you have to drink on the premises, and are technically under the landlord / bar staff supervision. If you buy a 6 pack of wife beater and go and sit in the park to drink it there is no supervision so you can get drunk and annoy other people, not to mention dump your empty cans in public.

Sorry but to me it makes perfect sense to try and curb yob drinking, nobody is infringing on your rights to drink at 18 just your ability to buy it from a shop.

It may work against binge drinking but then again it may not, as has already been stated, unscrupulous shop keepers will still sell it regardless until they get caught or someone with ID fake or real will buy it for them. What would be a better solution is to ban drinking of alcohol in parks and public places outside of official public functions.

You should think yourself lucky you are not in the US where you can not drink full stop until you are 21.


Sorry but where is the confusion?

PeteBrant

So you can only complain about a new law if it affects you personally?

Rubbish.

No, what they are proposing is for Adults, by any legal definition and responsibility, being banned from buying drink from off-licenses. The very same people that can do those things listed above.


Are you really saying that someone that has, say, just returned from a Tour of Duty in Iraq, shoudl not be allowed to go into an offie to buy a few cans to celebrate?

You did this at 18 I take it?

If you didn't then why should you be different to anyone else?

Of course they are.

Brilliant. Lets ban everyone from drinking just because a few people cause the odd problem.

Maybe we should ban *all* cars over 100BHP because they have the worst accidents , then, yes?

What a ridiculous statement. That's like saying we should think ourselves lucky we don't live in Afgahnistan and therefore aren;t in the middle of a war - The fact is we live in the UK. What the US does is completely irrelevant.

lozgti

Shops by us are selling to over 25's only.Some scheme or other.

I found it really hard work to force myself to enjoy beer from age 18 .You know,have to have lime in lager or lager and black.Makes me ill thinking about it

(Explains why alcopops are wrong though)

bish667

iTrader: (1)

Obviously your not from Scotland then as its already been banned from drinking in public places in Scotland where I live. Which i think is a good thing and it should be banned in England too(why havent they?).

Personally it wont affect me as im over 21 but my girlfriend isn't.
I generally drink at my house or at other peoples as most pubs are full of ar5eholes. People who are between 18 and 21 will not be happy that they cannot legally buy their own alcohol to consume at their own premises.

Its just going to encourage more buying drink for underagers, ie i wont be legally allowed to buy drink for me and my girlfriend for weekends in (as i'd be buying for someone under 21). Yet its alright for her to go and drink at the pub, why?

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

What I or you did is not in question here? whether I did or not is not the point, the point is I and I assume you also did not go out after drinking a 6 pack in the park get totally lashed up then go and kick some innocent persons head in for a laugh, or go on the rampage smashing up cars, telephone boxes, mugging people etc etc

PeteBrant

No, and niether to the vast majority of 18 year olds. You tell this by the fact that the vast majority of 18 year olds haven't been locked up/charged with assault/criminal damage.


Yes, there is a minorty that act like *****, but it is just that, a minority. Like I said, do we can all cars over 100BHP just because some people drvie like *****?

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

You are correct I do not live in Scotland, I live in Southern Germany where people can drink 24/7 from the age of 16. where we do not have binge drinking or alcohol related violence, we have street parties and beerfests etc

Kids here can buy beer at 16 and wine/spirits at 18.

For some reason we do not suffer from gangs of drunken kids on street corners or in parks, I do not feel unsafe walking past a gang of teenagers or parking my car next to a gang of lads on bmxs.

So come On Peter Brant you have an answer for everything why is to there is such a big problem in the UK when German kids can get alcohol 24/7, from an earlier age and at half the price without the need to beat up , terrorise or annoy others??

bish667

iTrader: (1)

But you can still get pissed in a pub then go out on a rampage??? hows this new law going to help that?

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

So what do you propose they do then? you are correct but as we all know it is the actions of the minority the screw it up for the majority, which means ultimately the majority suffer because the idiots in power decide with a knee jerk reaction that banning something is for the best when in actual fact it is just the easy way out

bish667

iTrader: (1)

See this is the point, its got nothing to do with the legal age people can buy drink at, if kids in germany and i believe France too can drink at 16 and dont have a problem, how will it help the UK increasing it from 18 to 21. It wont.
Its a higher up problem as stated previously, maybe its the parents but its nothing to do with the legal ago to buy drink so why make it higher. Surely if anything it should be reduced like where you live.

BTW not having a go at you Wurzel, just trying to make a point thats there will be no good from changing this law IMO.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

This again is perfectly true, but isn't there some rule about the landlord being responsible for making sure that people do not get pissed on his premises? If a person gets pissed then goes on the rampage and is caught then the landlord should be held responsible for serving him so much that he got pissed and violent in the first place. If the landlord was made more responsible with the threat of losing his licence I am willing to bet they would be a lot more careful in future about serving drunks.

lozgti

Its a good point though.

As a kid I was more interested in sport and ***** as were most of my friends.

Alcohol never came into the equation really.Even the 'bad' kids weren't into alcohol or drugs

There is a deeper problem

PeteBrant

There's isn't a "Big" problem in the UK - There's a perceived problem that was no worse than it was 10 years ago, which is the current media big bear - Therefore Government have to be seen to be doing something about it.

Nevertheless, you aren't going to change a culture over night. Northern European countries have always been big drinkers and thats the way it is. (Not saying that Germany et all don't enjoy a drink, but they seem to manage to be able to do it in a much more measured fashion)

What needs to happen is that the penalty for selling alcohol to under 18's needs to be much stricter, and there needs ot be much bette rpolicing of it.

In addition to this, buying alcohol for under 18's needs to be made much more of an issue.

Banning the sale to of alcohol to under 21s is just nonsensensical to my mind. If you are going to do that, and effectively say that those are 21 cannot be trusted to act like an adult, then raise the voting age, raise the age you can be sent to prison, raise the age at which you can get a mortgage.

You cannot say on one hand that a group of people are irresponsible, and on the other say they are adults when it suits you.

PeteBrant

Where did you live? That same place as "The Wicker Man" was filmed?

I was born and raised in London, and I was down the park having the odd can of special brew/thunderbirds/diamond white like lots of other experimenting teenagers.

lozgti

In a village surrounded by farms

Someone did get hold of a miniature bottle of Midori melon liquer once .

Only reason i started drinking was dutch courage to dance in nightclubs .

Honestly though,no one really cared about getting drunk as kids.Certainly the parks weren't full of cans and bottles scattered about like they seem to be now

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I got asked for ID in Atlanta airport, I am 37 FFS !

scoobynutta555

There's talk on the news tonight for a minimum price for each can/bottle of alcohol based on the strength.

Also, how long before anyone under 21 is banned from a pub/club. Why stop there, let's just ban pubs and clubs!

What a puritan society we have become.

Leslie

I understand your point Pete, but how responsible are the young binge drinkers shouting and being generally objectionable and throwing up all over the road until they eventually collapse and have to be taken off to A&E?

It may seem unfair but surely its the fault of those who are out of control. What would you do to solve the problem?

You say it is "perceived". Does that not mean it is seen to be happening in fact?

Les