Windbag is worse threat than Terrorists..

Living with a radiology nurse for 10 years i have seen just how much the NHS is underfunded.
It would be nice to spend some quiet time with my fiance, but alas they have to work unpaid overtime trying to treat people, who are probably people like kenny, that dont appreciate what is being done for them or the personal commitment of those professionals.

 

No but I find the assertion that the medical profession to be infallible is not always true. like the time my father's heart attack was diagnosed as indigestion.

I'm not trying to insult you or impugn your professional reputation, I'm just not convinced that you are correct on this.

 

listen, I'm only joking...you seem to be able to dish it out, but not take it..?

 

Have you read the links posted on the previous page?

 

yes.

I'm not disputing that it will reduce alcohol consumption.

I am saying that it is not the best strategy for solving the longer term problems.

 

Since reducing alcohol consumption is the urgent goal here, I would say QED.

 

all it will do is shift the locus of the problem to where alcohol is cheaper or increase the smuggling market. not QED

 

Speculation on your part. Some people might do that, the majority almost certainly won't.

Alcohol "Prohibition" in the United States is often deemed to have been a failure because of illegal drinking. In fact, cirrhosis rates fell very sharply at the time.

 

the majority don't at the moment. it's the minority that cause the problems.

I don't think that the police chief in question gives two hoots about cirrhosis. I think his stance is more to do with anti-social behaviour and getting the crime figures down.

The image of the british abroad is continually tarnished by the those who get drunk on cheap vino and start causing trouble.

However the locals abroad do not seem to have the same attitude towards alcohol, despite the fact that it is much cheaper in the majority of Europe. So I have to question why that is.

 

Cirrhosis is just an approximate barometer for alcohol consumption within a (Western) population. As you point out, there are other consequences from excess alcohol, including social disorder, but also many other different health & employment problems.

The answer is that here in the UK, we have a cultural problem with our relationship with alcohol. Having said that, the so-called "sensible mediterranean attitude" towards alcohol is not particularly sensible: have a look at France or Italy's cirrhosis figures.

 

From what i understand, the european attitude (Italy, France etc..) is not to be openly drunk in public. So it probably means it goes on behind closed doors.

 

but would you agree that hiking the price of alcohol will do nothing towards changing the attitide towards alcohol? all it will do is make less attainable.

whilst cirrhosis may be a barometer, it is not one that is generally visible to society, at least not in the same way that a riot outside a nightclub at 3 a.m is.

I'm sure the burden on the A&E depts has far more to do with the immediate effects of the binge drinking attitude and associated violence than cirrhosis.

Would education not provide a better solution than massive taxation?

 

Hi Paul,

Tel me about. I think my next car is going to be a tank!

The thing is that people think that the drunken trouble and hassle is all caused by the underclass, 'The Chavs'. It is cause by people from the full range of backgrounds and classes. A large number are people, who on paper, seem like model citizens. They have some booze (or alot of boooze) and they change. Jeckle and Hyde springs to mind. It's down to what alcohol can do to people.

You will be suprised at some of the things people do under the influence of booze.

No pricing is not the full answer. Higher priced booze will mean a lot of people will not drink as much. But some people will still drink alot. Most of these are people will be addicted to drink. This where the education and rehab comes in.

By reducing the amount of alcohol people consume and the rate they consume it, will help to reduce the scum count. I would rather people didn't commit the crimes in the first place.


SCIDB

 

This is true.

Don't forget that there are another two factors, IMO, that count in Britain:
crappy, dreary weather (means some people like "getting out of it" on whatever to stave off miserablitis)
lower standard of living (due to ridiculous house prices, longer working hours than Europe, high fuel prices, basically just the typical "Rip-Off Britain" thing)

Like they say in "New Jack City", "in times like this, people want to get high, and fast". However, an awful lof of those people prefer doing it legally. Since legal cigs don't get you high, the only other option is...

BOOZE.

The NHS *is* underfunded, but how much of the money it DOES get gets wasted on "consultants" and "middle managers"? (not to dig at you, Bub - it wasn't meant that way)

BTW - a question for Bub/Julian - if you drink lots of Red Bull on nights out (without alcohol), isn't the huge amount of sugar in it (along with tourine) likely to be as bad for your liver as booze (in terms of diabeties risk etc)? A serious q, as I'm wandering how to do my next rave now I've finally decided to quit the naughties??? (I dance like a loon, so need the energy rush)

 

dom,
before i go out i'll have a big cup of coffee and a couple of painkillers (tescos extra strenghth). possibly a couple of pro plus if i'm in a rush instead of the coffee. through the night i'll drink a lot of water (typically a bottle every 3/4 of an hour) but then i sweat buckets on the dance floor. i might have another pro plus about 4am if it's an early morninger or a couple of red bulls. to be honest red bull isn;t that high in sugar - it's only about 10gms of carbs per 100ml iirc. but i still don;t drink a lot of it due to my low carb diet.
to be honest the biggest energy rush for me is the music and the fact that i'm not carying a spare 121 lbs arround with me - but still have the leg muscles from doing it for 10 years or so. worst for me is cramp from all the salt i lose from sweating so much - i usually try to take (or buy) some peanuts or cashews with me to eat 1/2 way thru the night - this gives me a boost. other things to try are gummi sweets - they have a massive glyciemic index and are closest to the glycogen that your body uses as raw fuel so should give you an instant pick up ifyou're flagging - a big no no for me though thanks to the diet again.
cheers


julian.

 

Good ideas although I find Pro Plus makes me get really icky - Red Bull otoh... Surely though if you're necking a Pro Plus in the club... well, watch out for the bouncers

GREAT IDEAS - cheers for that - I love dry roasted peanuts, but salt ones after sweating make sense - I'll road test these suggestions at Altern-8 on September 10th After all, I get a great buzz from music too in clubs, whether drunk or "loved up", so it stands to reason I should get there without too once I strut my funky stuff - or something

 

When I was a young man me and my m8s used to go to the Hacienda.. And being skint we used to take either a packet of pro plus or half a pack of DoDos...
We kidded ourselves we were having a great time sitting there shaking and humourless!
Never again...

 

as long as i don;t overdo caffine i'm ok - about 3 cups a day of the industrial strength gloop i normally drink is my maximum with 1 being the norm. as i say if i'm in a rush i'll neck a couple of pro plus which seems to do the job. one other thing you might want to try is echinacea (a type of herbal tea) - i find this stuff hits me really hard and don;t drink it any more but if you want palpitations then go for it...
lastly i find that if i eat something a bit spicy then it can get my metabolism going.
cheers


julian.

 

Might be on to something there, in Europe more people Rent than buy, have shorter working hours and more holidays. When you work a long week you have to let of steam some how.
Slave to the wage, your at work because you have to be there, not because you want to, I think I heard on the news once that in a survey of depression in various types of employment, IT came out on top for employee suffering from depression, there is got to be something in that.

 

bub in kindness, here you are displaying total ignorance.

just raising prices of things is no answer, and yet its pandied as a panacea.

just look at car ownership and petrol prices, prices are higher then ever, car use is higher than ever.

you have to look, and I am sure you are aware of the wider implications of alcohol apart from thier medical effects on the liver and other systems/organs of the body.

due to stresses of modern living, not enuff cash to do what you want, the beckham media thing seeing loads of cash around, all stresses and wanting more, together with obesity, cravings, something is affecting people, and that explains the alcohol, drug, food and other cravings, overcrowding, time, its all interrelated.

pricing will not stop it, such things are ridiculous modern approaches by idiot desk people who give the impression they know how to do something but in the end do it simply to get money from jo public and its an easy justification, tbh i am fed up of hearing this garbage from govt. about pricing things out.hasn't stopped car use. won't stop anything else...so their argument is rubbish.

only a total reexamination of lifestyles and stresses. I drink responsibly, 7 units max a week, sometimes half that.