From https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6551887.stm

Smoking first, drinking next.  Nanny knows best!    I'm expecting there may be a few on here who disagree with this proposal......


Call to raise drinking age to 21
Britain should consider making the legal drinking age 21 as it has "lost the plot" when it comes to regulating alcohol, policy pundits claim.
The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.

Public Policy Research (PPR), the journal of the IPPR think-tank, says it is time to practise "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age.

The government said there were already tough measures in place.

Binge culture

But columnist Jasper Gerard argues in PPR: "When it comes to booze, society seems to have lost its senses."

He says current regulations are failing to tackle the growing trend of underage and binge drinking.

By raising the age threshold, he claims: "It is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now."

Alternatively, he proposes getting 18-year-olds to carry smart cards which record how much they have drunk each night and making it an offence to serve more alcohol to anyone under-21 who had already consumed more than three units.

Crackdown

He conceded that no measure would stamp out youthful drinking entirely, but said it was time for a crackdown.

Alcohol Concern agreed that further action was needed, but did not think raising the legal drinking age would help, pointing out that other countries which have already done this, including the US, still have a problem with youth drinking.

  What we really need to do is change the drinking culture through education rather than making drinking a social taboo

David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group

But a spokesman added: "There is a sense that the regulatory landscape is lopsided.

"Licensing reform, resistance to a debate on taxation, the cancellation of the Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaigns which raised the profile of underage drinking issues - all happening at a time when alcohol-related harm is rising - seem to suggest the government is more concerned about making sure the drinks industry operates with as little interference as possible than with seriously grasping the nettle."

However, David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group, said the drinks industry was already subject to "very strict and effective" regulations.

 ALCOHOL MISUSE
Alcohol-related conditions such as liver disease have doubled in less than a decade, to 262,844 a year
The number of people taken to Accident & Emergency with alcohol-related injuries has also doubled to 148,477 a year
Excessive drinking by young people has seen a 20% rise in hospital admissions in England over the last five years


'Wasted on cider at 14' 

He said: "What we really need to do is change the drinking culture through education rather than making drinking a social taboo by raising the legal drinking age."

A government spokesman said: "The majority of people drink sensibly and responsibly and the government has no plans to raise the minimum drinking age.

"Instead, we are using a combination of effective education and tough enforcement to change the behaviour of the minority that don't."

He said there had been campaigns to cut sales to underage drinkers and restrictions on TV advertising of alcohol, as well as education programmes in schools about the dangers of drinking.

I live in a country where the age is 21 and trust me....this is a bad, bad, bad idea.  It doesn't stop binge drinking, it just creates a culture of reckless semi-adults with driving licenses instead of reckless teenagers. 

You might be surprised to find out where a lot of the anti-alcohol lobby gets their money from. 

You don't have the issue of bampy kids getting pissed in the street in the US like we have over here though.  I know what you mean about drink driving - I was amazed how many supposedly intelligent people I worked with, not long out of college, who would drive to the pub, have a skinful, and drive home.

As for raising the drink age to 21 - it wouldn't bother me in the slightest, but I doubt it would make much difference to kids getting their hands on booze.  Might make me feel a bit less old out in town though.

we have a lot of 11-15 year olds getting wasted so we decide to stop 18-20 year olds from drinking.

what are the drinking ages of other nations with much more mild drink problems i'd like to know? i'm guessing not 21. typical thinking atm. We have kids getting slaughtered, this must mean the drinking age is too low, raise the drinking age. Ignore's the fact other countries manage fine with ages of 18, or even 16. its not the f****** age thats the problem, its the culture, and when will the people in charge realise this. pathetic attempts to tackle this issue have been hardly successful as well. A video telling people of the dangers of alcohol abuse, or maybe having people telling you not to drink is not going to stop a kid drinking.

it won't remove the supply of alcohol though. it may make it a bit harder mind, but if you can get alcohol at 14 in a 18 and above drinking nation, then you can get it in a 21 and above. show me one 14 year old that looks old enough to buy alcohol.
We need to look at why all these nations that don't drink themselves to death, don't drink themselves to death, and learn from them. I think lowering the drinking age may well even have a better effect than this, although it equally could have disasterous effects. i think the only effect of this would be to make it harder for 18-20 year olds to drink.

it makes f*** all sense to allow someone to drive at 17, but drink at 18, never mind 21. i'm taking lessons and i for one feel more of a threat to other members of the public and myself when i'm in the car, than when i'm drunk.

aye that too

i cant see it making much difference to 14 year olds because if their getting alcohol, chances are its either from their parents, someone buying for them, or a dodgy shop guy. the new law probably won't affect any of these much. it will however stop 18-20 year olds from legally buying alcohol, which means they will either have to take steps to buy it illgally, or stop drinking. i said it will make it a bit harder, but not much imo, whereas with 18-20 year olds it will make it a lot harder.

i think its bizzare.

btw other countries have a lower drinking age, yet seem to do alright. I'm not saying that it would work, because i don't know, and it wouldn't work without major cultural changes, but i can't see raising the drinking age having anything more than a minor effect (they may prove me wrong mind). i think cultural attitudes to alcohol are part of the problem. stopping kids drinking while younger makes them want to try it harder at the first oppertunity. i think kids need to be given more responsibility, but also like you said more responsibility would just make a 14 year old drink more, so other things need to happen in conjunction.

I think the point in raising it is pretty obvious.  To stop teenage drinking, not underage drinking.  It's not about just getting the under 18 mob, I reckon, or pissing off the 18-21 lot.  Yes, it might annoy the respectful 18 year old drinker (as few and far between as they are), but that's a small price to pay.  I'd be happy for it, if it means getting some of the wretches off our street steaming on a weekend.  Binge drinkers are bad enough, teenage drinkers are even worse these days.  It's not like you turn 18, then stop being the scumbag tearaway you may have been previously.  It also makes it a bit easier to reject people.  18 can be a hard age to judge.  That said, I still don't think it'll work in the slightest.  It's a hardline approach, which rarely works.

But these countries are okay because they have a totally different attitude.  Chez is spot on, in Britain we've glorified drinking for the last century, and if you read certain things, we've been doing it for centuries..

Give our youth more responsibility when they earn it.  At the moment though, the idea of lowering it, is honestly insane.  I see your argument, but the random ned from Easterhouse, Glasgow, doesn't.

Isn't it still 21 in Scotland? - certain was about 15 years ago.

What a model of responsible drinking that country is.

I don't think drink is the real issue here, more our inability as a nation to handle it, that and the yobish culture we seem to be excelling at. Ireland like their drink, as do the Scots, and they don't have as many problems as we seem to do, nor do Germany. Raising the limit won't be effective, although I don't know what measures can be taken short of culling certain people.

Scotland has a higher rate of alcohol related illness, Germany just became the most obese nation in europe and the irish have just as many underage drinking charvas as anywhere else tbh.

Shows my ignorance then

Playing devils advocate here like... could it be that our problems are slightly exaggerated due to how small an island this is, and the number of people who are out drinking each day?