What "Blue Laws" are in effect where you live ?

[DanaC]

When they relaxed the restrictions on alcohol sales there was all this stuff in the press about how we'd somehow take on a more adult, more civilised, more...well, continental relationship with drink.

Hahahahaha. Ahh dear me.

Last time I went through halifax town on a weekend evening, there was a gang of teenagers straggling through the town centre, one of whom spent more time lay on the floor than actually walking.

They provided the chimp enclosure with an unending supply of cheap bananas and expected said chimps to exercise temperance and self-control :p

I count myself in that. Though I don't drink so much I do drink moe than is entirely healthy and worse still, I am a 'binge drinker', in that I will go periods without touching alcohol, then when I do I drink to excess. By excess I mean that I exceed healthy levels of alcohol. But I am considered by most of my friends to be a relatively light drinker.

Drinking is a massive part of British culture. Most adult hobbies involve meeting in pubs at some point. Caving or potholing, or climbing up a mountain in the crisp winter air? Well, that needs rounding off with a pub meal and plenty of ale. Member of a political party? Meet at the Working Men's Club/Labour Club/Conservative Club*/ function room above the Red Lion pub. Been Christmas shopping? Well then time for a slap up Christmas dinner at the Wetherspoons pub with free beer/glass of wine/Christmas cocktail or whatever the offer is that month.

Bad place for anybody who struggles to resist alcohol. Lots of people don't drink, for whatever reason. They don;t like it. They're pregnant. They're driving. They're muslims. But relatively easy for such people to interact with the drinkers happily (or for those whose faith prohibits it there's usually a parrallel non-drinking culture). For someone who struggles with it and therefore avoids being in that situation it can be incredibly isolating.


*member led drinking, pool-playing, darts throwing, light entertainment establishments, usually with large function rooms for hire to wedding parties etc and nominally (or more actively) associated with a political party or movement.