After a very busy week and watching the joyous occasion of the Royal Wedding, I am in the process of undertaking various chores. One of my tasks is to provide a short front-page commentary about a story which caught my eye earlier this week about the increasing problem of people drinking heavily at home. Well – here it is!
I remember raising various points back in 2007 when the blanket smoking legislation was introduced in England. One of my comments was that people would stay at home and drink more in the home environment. The logical conclusion may be drawn that when people feel unwelcome and uncomfortable in a social environment, it is highly likely that they will choose to stay at home more frequently and, obviously, socialise less. People who enjoy smoking tobacco have been made to feel this way during the past few years and the mentality of demonising tobacco-smokers continues at the time of writing.
Staying at home instead of visiting public houses, private clubs or other venues is also treated rather dismissively by contemporary social commentators in newspapers generally. Apparently, people now no longer wish to pursue their traditional way of life and PREFER a more introverted lifestyle. The choice of staying at home, or being unwilling to socialise is usually described as ‘cultural change’. Very many times I have read the view that there have been far too many public houses and social venues available, and as a lot of these were ‘downmarket’ or ‘very badly run’, it is natural that thousands of low calibre drinking/social establishment have closed their doors for the last time during the past four years. These factors, combined with alcohol price increases, cheaper supermarket prices and a variety of other contributory elements have led to profound cultural change.
If cultural change means that many people choose to be isolated from their fellow man and drink excessively at home, there cannot very much ‘culture’ attributed to such negative behaviour. Often excessive drinking of alcohol, combined with depression, stress and fear of the future, leads to acts of violence, and acts of violence in the home are neither cultural nor refined. Interestingly, Harrogate (near where I live) was cited as a place where drinking at home has become particularly problematic. Harrogate is well-known in the north of England as being a cultural place where many refined people live, and is a spa town which still boasts excellent historic baths, as well as the outdoor, attractive grassy expanses of The Stray. If people in Harrogate are drinking excessively at home to obliterate their fears and unhappiness, I dread to think what is happening in other less scenic towns in the country.
According to this article, the effects of excessive drinking cost the NHS annually £2.7 billion (amazingly similar to reported smoking related costs!). Surely, at this time of recession, £2.7 billion can be used more sensibly. Apparently, a York City Council mayor identified this problem in 2009 and raised its profile. This was two years AFTER the blanket smoking ban in indoor public places was implemented, yet this ban was designed to improve the general health of the nation. More people drink alcohol than smoke tobacco products.
I have chosen to point out what is blatantly obvious to me, but was omitted in this article. Please read and analyse it, think for yourself and come to your own personal conclusion why many more people are drinking excessively at home. I realise that loss of employment leads to lack of disposable income – I have personally endured that indignity on more than one occasion during my working life. However, in social environments we have, indeed, experienced ‘cultural change’ – and some aspects of that process of change have not been for the better.