Most of you are probably aware that drinking laws have been changed in England and Wales so that clubs, pubs and shops can apply for licences to sell alcohol at any time of day. Previously, most pubs closed at 11pm, shops stopped selling alcohol at the same time, and most clubs only served alcohol until 2am, even if they were open all night. People have been asking me what I think about this. Well, from a personal point of view, as Mark Myers, 20-something lad about town, who always wants “just one more drink” at kicking out time, I think it is absolutely marvellous and I can’t wait to hit the town and guzzle to my heart’s content without gluing my eyes to the clock and listening out for the bell. However, as Mark Myers, Nee Naw Dispatcher Extraordinaire, my views are a little more ambivalent.
There’s no doubt that more alcohol leads to more accidents. On the average Friday or Saturday night, I would say that at least 90% of the calls we get are alcohol related. The most common theme is fights, followed by people who have drunk too much and made themselves ill, followed by people who have drunkenly accidentally injured themselves. There’s also a lot more suicide and self harm going on. Even when the ailments aren’t alcohol related, the people calling are often more than a little tipsy, which often makes them rather belligerent and not easy to tell what to do. It seems logical that alcohol will make all these problems worse. But will it really? Taking these points one by one:
1) Fights. Most fights seem to occur after the pub has shut. Squabbles break out over cabs and kebabs and before long, blood is shed. While the pubs are actually open on a weekend, Nee Naw Control is dead quiet. I think people get grumpy because they want more alcohol and are denied it. Let them carry on drinking until they are ready to stop and they won’t have that problem. (Assuming people *are* ever ready to stop… I can imagine some people would never be). Also, if the pubs are all kicking out at different times the kebab/cab queues won’t be as big and there will be less opportunity for fight-picking. The call taking queue always leaps up at around 11pm when the pubs shut, and there’s always a long wait for ambulances at this time. Spread out closing times, and that problem will be eliminated.
2) Drunk-Too-Much Syndrome. Speaking from personal experience, the times when I’ve ended up “worshipping the porcelean god” haven’t been when I’ve drunk for too long but when I’ve drunk too much in a short space of time. If I knew I had as long as I liked to drink, I’d be less inclined to guzzle high strength drinks at a rate of knotts. So perhaps there will be less unconscious drunks.
3) Drunken Accidents and Mental Health Problems Exaceberated By Drunkeness. I guess while the pubs stay open, these will keep on happening. So while everything quietens down at 3am at the moment when everyone goes, they may well keep on going all night, meaning we don’t get to doze off in the ten minute gap between calls at 5am any more. Management will probably say this is a good thing, though.
4) Drunk People Ringing For Ambulances and Being Rude. Will probably get worse now more people have the opportunity to be drunk.
Anyway, I’m reserving my final judgement until I’ve worked a weekend nightshift and seen how different it is. I expect tonight will be a nightmare because everyone will be taking advantage of the laws and overdoing it, but I’m not working tonight, so I don’t have to worry about that! I will report back with my findings when they have them and until then… I’m off to the pub!
November 26th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
good idea!
November 26th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
.
November 26th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Have you already been at it?
November 26th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
Well, here in Blackpool there are now a number of premises open through to 3-4am. We even have a couple open until 5. One of those is a 9am-5am. I suspect it will go badly for a while. Interestingly, Syndicate is only open until 2am, which are it’s old times. It was shut down due to police concerns. Reopens tonight….has to be on its best behaviour by the sound of things.
November 26th, 2005 at 8:39 pm
As an on-call vet nurse I too found 11ish the busiest time on the phones. Alcohol seemed to make people notice/panic about their pets more! My favourite was the very drunk man who found his mother’s budgie dead. I told him to buy an identical replacement…what else could we do?
It will be interesting to see how the licensing laws pan out. If it means I can leave the pub at 11, while the hardcore stay to drink even more, and I get a cab quickly then that’s great.
But it may just push the fighting time forward to 2/3 am, or whenever most people decide to call it a night.
And you might get a rise in calls to ‘unconscious’ people slumped in the bar!
November 26th, 2005 at 11:28 pm
Well, we’ve had longer licensing hours in Scotland, where I’m from, for years. I was aghast to discover last orders were at 10.45 when I moved down here, and I have to say, longer hours do actually tend to reduce the craziness on the streets. I went out in an unnamed town in Essex once, and when thousands of drunk lads and lasses were milling around the streets precisely five minutes after eleven, either pushing and shoving in the queue for some overpriced meat market of a club or fighting pitched battles for taxis and kebab shops, I shook my head ruefully, knowing that the whole scene would be repeated exactly three hours later when the clubs kicked out. In the land of my birth, it’s all staggered, so there are no such mass brawls disguised as a good night out. Now if we could only figure out a way to stop the roaming gangs of kids with Buckfast and switchblades, we’d be a paragon of nighttime safety.
November 27th, 2005 at 10:22 am
I can’t help but think that 24 hour drinking has been with us forever, in the form of off licenses, and cupboards at home. Having said that, the idiocy of the general public seems to know no bounds, so I’d expect to see untold levels of stupidity and violence over the next few months. Long-term though, I reckon as Dave says, it could reduce the level of craziness. (Perhaps after the real nob-heads have drunk themselves to death!?)
November 27th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Will it stop the hordes of silly mares that think 7 shots of aftershock in an hour is a good idea? Doubt it. Said silly mare then calls an ambulance stating her sillier mare mates drink has been spiked……. Of course it has!! Because the wine they drank before going out and having several large vodka red bulls and some shots is nothing…. “but she normally drinks more than this”! Frightening.
A london hospital (a projectile vomit away from nee naw control) is currently running a trial, taking spiked drink allegations very seriously and screening bloods for toxicity, be interesting to see the results
And by the way, i am soooo hungover today, was in a pub til 2am……
November 28th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
I guess it remains to be seen how this will turn out in the real world, but I guess not have set closing hours will spread the load, Locals should not tread the 11:00pm walkout, but then they might have to deal with all night rowdiness as punter will be streaming out at odd hours.
As for the effects on the emergency services, I think you are in the best position to see how that will pan out, so looking forward to future posts on the subject.
I just hope that people will be responible and not drive after they finish at the pub, not matter how long they have to wait for a cab or taxi.
The Driving Instructor
November 28th, 2005 at 4:17 pm
I enjoyed your appraisal of the situation. Having been on the receiving end of alcohol-induced violence-post-11pm I hope you are right about 1. and 2., and think you probably are. I for one enjoyed not having to stop at 11pm on Friday night when I went to the local.
November 29th, 2005 at 3:30 am
In Spain you can drink alcohol any time. And we do not seem to have those violence problems. Of course, saturdays and sundays mornings, car accidents are epidemic.
But it must be said that alcohol is inside our tradition. Children are offered wine from his own parents.
The big deal is with drugs, specially desing drug and young people…
November 29th, 2005 at 9:42 am
Still in 2 minds over 24 hour drinking, I can see the logic behind it, but Logic and Alcohol are not the best of friends
November 29th, 2005 at 10:26 am
“Most of you are probably aware that drinking laws have been changed in the UK”. No, the drinking laws have been changed in England and Wales. I know this is hard for Londoners to grasp, but there is this big top bit of the UK that has a different legal system…
I agree with Dave Goodman about the extended opening hours in Scotland. It does mean that ned related glassings are spread about the place (my personal favourite being a friend who was threatended with a borken bottle and the menacing phrase ‘Gi’us a CHIP!’. Not money. Chips.). It also depends on the council; I remember Fife Council had pub licences that either ran to 12 or 1am, which really didn’t do anything for staggering leaving times.
November 29th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
Short term I don’t expect any changes. Longer term, perhaps a year to 2 years a slight fall in cases. I don’t believe you can take the fight out of an Englishman intent on clashing a few heads together.
Frence Cafe culture? This is England old chap. We don’t burn cars here..
November 29th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
Here in Michigan, USA the bars (pubs) can serve alcohol no later than 0200. Even though I work in a university town I don’t think there would really be much change. Most people seem to have their fill at some point. The parties in this town go on all night on private property. I think the customer volume in the later hours would really taper off and make it unprofitable for most establishments to stay open. By the way…what in the world is a kebab?
November 30th, 2005 at 8:12 am
Great site, thanks for stopping by mine. I’d love to go to another country someday and see the differences in their EMS systems. Sounds like all the same problems for the most part! I’d like to trade links if your so inclined.
Mike
November 30th, 2005 at 10:06 pm
You might be interested to see an EMDC call taker recieving some good press here! http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2327782005
December 1st, 2005 at 4:10 am
Kebab = meat of unknown origin, dripping with fat, spit roasted, sliced thin and served in a pitta-bread with a token amount of salad.
December 1st, 2005 at 11:53 pm
M… sorry! My mistake! Will edit post.
Medic!: Link added
Nocode: You’re telling me they don’t have kebabs in America?!
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:02 am
Well, from my first experience of the ‘new’ licensing laws, I must say I find them very civilized. Finished presenting a play at the local theatre at around 10.20pm, off to the local. Fancy around 2 pints before getting home.
Now, usually, one would have to neck those 2 pints in an hour. Tonight, we had over 2 hours - and there were still people in there drinking because, even though the pub had stopped serving, it would appear that drinking-up time is now more flexible (haven’t seen the actual rules on this though). Didn’t even realise how late it was.
So, instead of of a frenetic end to the night, it was a nice relaxing wind-down, but the same amount of alcohol consumed. That WAS the plan, wasn’t it?
Cheers!
PS - For ‘kebab’, also see ‘kebob’ or ‘kabob’ if you’re in America.
Why do Americans never bother to figure out that maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world spell words differently. I swear I’ve seen USA folks totally baffled by the words honour, aluminium, maths and autumn.
I once gave an American tourist directions - told him to cross the road at the pedestrian crossing. He was flummoxed! So I told him again, several times. Still didn’t get it. Eventually, he got it. “Oh, you mean the crosswalk”. How could he be confused?! Crosswalk is even less obvious than the term ‘pedestrian crossing’. The words tell you what it means! And the fact that I pointed to it and said that’s where you cross the road…
But, hey. They gave us Seinfeld, so I can forgive them!
December 2nd, 2005 at 2:11 am
Oh, and…
[God, it's him again!]
If you don’t know what a word means, isn’t it easier to Google it, than to ask in public, thus risking:
a) ridicule;
b) fake answers;
c) people from other countries being patronising?
December 2nd, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Hi Mark…can I get you to change the link to me in your sidebar/blogroll to http://aginoth.blogspot.com/
I had to delete my other blog (trapped in the body of a civil servant)…long story
December 4th, 2005 at 2:09 am
Bummer, Aginoth. You got dooced?
December 4th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Although the original quote has a kebab attached in context to a mode of transportation “kebab/cab queues”, the only Google reference I could find was to something resembling a sandwich. Trying to glean the intent of the author, I had the mistaken notion I had come across a slang term for some mode of transportation. I have travelled outside the USA and have found that it is so much easier to politely inquire of the speaker’s intent than to rush off for a dictionary. Some folks may consider that risk taking but a risk I prefer to take. Different languages, customs, and cultures frequently create confusion (for me at least) but I’ve found that most of the time I can muddle through when I use good manners and treat people with respect. My thanks to those who provided me with a clear definition.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:01 am
Don’t stop asking NoCode. Interest in cultural differences is nothing to be self concious about
I’d have to say in the pronunciation of most words, I’d go with the country of origin, ie. earliest incarnation is the right one. So Turkish Kebabs and Shis-kebabs etc would supercede kebobs/kabobs for correctness.
But I am pretty sure what we refer to as Kebabs in this country is already known by another name in America, that of the Greek term “Gyro” which is probably a more accurate term anyway (am I right in thinking is actually pronounced more like “hero”?):
http://www.greeklandscapes.com/travel/food_gyros.html
Finally, whilst I may smirk a little when Americans say Aluminum or cringe when you drop the H from the word Herbs, you guys have totally got it right when you pronounce words like Lieutenent. How the hell we pronounce Lieu as “Leff” is beyond me.
December 5th, 2005 at 11:13 am
I think it’s “yEE-ros”… I’ve had them and they’re not nearly as good as kebabs, which are Turkish in origin and made from lamb (or sometimes chicken). Gyros is pork and very chewy.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
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