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Britons: Life Sans Alcohol Would Be a Fright

by Zoe Strimpel
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 at 2:01 PM

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This country's dependence on alcohol has again made headlines. The Observer yesterday ran a story billed thus: "Britons can't imagine a life without booze." Good timing. It was Easter, but the pubs were all open. And crammed.

"The fear of a life without alcohol is so endemic," ran paragraph two, "that most adults say they are scared by the idea of socialising, relaxing, taking part in any celebration or trying to have a good night's sleep without drinking."

Eeek. But not off the mark. Last week the country was abuzz with word of yet another campaign to dissuade us from drinking so much. ("Us" meaning grown-up, middle-class drinkers who enjoy a gin and tonic and a half bottle of wine with dinner, not the teenage binge drinkers famous for causing bedlam on Saturday nights).

This time — or, more accurately, again — the government has female drinkers in its sights. The latest development is that women in middle age who drink more than the recommended amounts are 50% more likely to develop breast cancer. The £10 million ($20 million) Department of Health campaign is intended to raise women's awareness of how much they're drinking. "Many drink too much because they have no idea how many units they are consuming," the public health minister, Dawn Primarolo, was quoted as saying in the Times of London. "After the campaign no one will be in any doubt as to how many units they're drinking and the impact that can have on their health." Oh dear, says one who spent the best part of yesterday in the pub, unburdened by knowledge of exactly how many glasses of wine she drank.

Alcohol dependence, as defined by the research the Observer printed, is less than straightforward. Many of the survey's respondents "do not get drunk or exceed the limit," the project director of a leading British alcohol-treatment chain, Sue Allchurch, told the Observer. "But drinking has become so commonplace in our society that even those who are not physically addicted are mentally dependent on alcohol and horrified by the thought of not drinking," she added.

More grist to the government's anti-alcohol campaign is the widespread availability of dirt-cheap drink — mostly at supermarkets and liquor store chains. Yesterday news broke that retailers are refusing to pass on to consumers new price hikes on alcohol, the result of recent tax increases. A letter leaked to the Observer showed that at least one chain, Bargain Booze, is asking its suppliers to absorb the cost, or risk losing their contracts.

It's doubtful we'll become a nation of moderate drinkers anytime soon. But the campaigns and the health scares will keep coming. How long until we crack?

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