Pub 2501 p18-19 space leader 20/1/10 16:51 Page 19
www.thepublican.com thePublican Monday 25/01/10 19
Opinion This Week
‘Dentist’s chairs are a myth, not the reality. Using
national legislation to ban the one UK bar that may
or may not have such a chair is a ridiculous waste
of government time, effort and money’
Editor’s Comment by Caroline Nodder
Email carolinen@thepublican.com
The only dentist’s chairs I’ve ever seen have been in dentist’s will have no effect at all on the hundreds of thousands of
surgeries… with the small but notable exception of one that litres of cheap booze being pushed by the supermarkets.
appeared in the national press some 13 years ago. The chair What the government evidently hopes it will do is make it
in question, which was actually in a bar in Hong Kong, not look — wrongly — like they are actually in control of the issue.
the UK, was being occupied at the time by then-England Dentist’s chairs are a myth, not the reality. Using national
footballer Gazza. He was having copious quantities of spirits legislation to ban the one UK bar that may or may not have
poured down his throat while his teammates shouted such a chair is a ridiculous waste of government time, effort
encouragement. The image marked the start of a press and money. And the rest of the code is similarly worthless.
frenzy over the antics of the England team off the pitch but It’s a PR stunt intended to dupe the public once again, when
has also, sadly, become a symbol of irresponsible drinking the reality is that the issues surrounding binge-drinking can’t
that has plagued the pub trade ever since. be tackled with a change in the law. They can only be
Try Googling “dentist’s chair pub” today and you will come tackled with a gradual change in the UK’s drinking culture.
up with a lot of references to the Gazza incident, some And that comes over many years and is highly unlikely to
articles about the new mandatory government code on be precipitated by the kind of draconian legislative tools this
irresponsible promotions (See News, page1) but not a single government seems to specialise in. Prohibition in the States
example that I could see of a pub in the UK today that has a did not lead people to enjoy alcohol more responsibly. It led
dentist’s chair installed. the them to break the law, buying alcohol illegally through
Which only serves to highlight the pointlessness of the the unregulated black market, giving alcohol a sort of cool it
new government code. Launched last week and coming into never had before.
force later this year, the code is the latest government effort Treating people like naughty schoolchildren is not a
to be seen to be tackling ‘Binge Britain’. In practice, as with strategy that is going to bring about cultural change. Cultural
previous efforts, the code will have absolutely no effect on change is only going to be brought about through
irresponsible drinking at all. It won’t stop anyone from experience. And 99.9 per cent of pubs in this country are
downing half-a-bottle of cheap supermarket vodka in the shining examples of the kind of relaxed community drinking
local park and then choking on their own vomit. It certainly environment that is going to promote responsible drinking to
won’t stop young girls drinking two bottles of wine in their the population as a whole. They should be applauded and
bedrooms, then turning up at the local pub smashed. And it celebrated. Not blamed.
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