Time for pubs to accept responsibility

For an industry throwing its arms up in horror at the Scottish Government proposal to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol, the pub trade is not exactly showing that it is making serious inroads into tackling the problem of binge-drinking through its own devices. Two separate announcements yesterday demonstrated that there is a complacency, bordering on arrogance, among those who really should be taking a lead in what has become the biggest single social issue in Scotland.

Figures released by the Scottish Government show that more than 560 licensees across the country had sold alcohol to underage children in a 12-month period up to last year. Almost 100 of these offences were committed in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, more than in the whole of Glasgow and Edinburgh put together. At the same time, the chairman of brewery chain Wetherspoon was claiming that the “draconian” crackdown on underage drinking in pubs was exacerbating the binge-drinking problem because it was forcing youngsters into streets and parks to get their alcohol fix.

Such crass irresponsibility by people who should know better serves only to strengthen the hands of the Scottish ministers as they attempt to bulldoze through their minimum pricing plan in the face of widespread opposition. If they are to avoid the threat of further legislation, all those involved in the licensed trade must start to demonstrate that they are attempting to police themselves. They must start to address the problem of binge-drinking by cutting off the supply of alcohol to youngsters and by refusing to serve people who have clearly consumed more than is good for them. Such measures will not cure the problem overnight, but they will show that the industry is taking its responsibilities more seriously than currently appears to be the case.