It's a cultural thing

As I am getting ready to move out of the university halls of residence where I have been staying for the last year in London and getting ready to go back to Cyprus for the summer holidays, I have found inspiration in complaining about England.

The first and very important one which has been in the news recently since the implementation of the drinking ban on public transport introduced by new London mayor Boris Johnstone.

While it is obviously a quickfire measure by the new mayor to show the London public his determination to crack down on anti-social behaviour in the capital, the issue of drinking whilst in the tube or the bus highlights a much deeper underlying issue to do with British culture.

Successive British governments have tried many ways in order to eradicate binge drinking and anti-social behaviour brought about by excessive drinking.

Short licensing hours were to blame for everything before they were extended three years ago, while a few months ago it was even suggested by a Labour MP that Tescos was to blame for the nation's attitude to drinking, branding Tesco's chief as the "godfather of binge drinking".

While I am definitely not a fan of Boris Johnson, far from it, I do not think that the law on banning alcohol on public transport in fact a bad one. If it helps to make the tube a better and reduces alcohol-related accidents or incidents on the underground, then it has done its job. In any case, in many other European countries, it is banned to drink alcohol outside, and these laws are not regarded as a restriction of any freedom.

However, I feel that this law is very much misguided. Setting aside the problem of how impractical this will be to enforce, is making it illegal for people to drink on the tube and the bus in any way going to stop binge drinking and the anti-social behaviour that comes with it?

Most of the debate about what I like to call the 'drinking culture' in England centres on totally the wrong issues. Living in Cyprus, I have definitely seen my fair share of drunken Englishmen and women stumbling out of clubs and bars in the seaside resorts that the island has to offer. Cyprus has very lax laws on alcohol and drinking out in bars and clubs is very much affordable - another of the excuses used for binge drinking before going out to more expensive nightspots in the UK - but there could not be a greater antithesis when it comes to comparing a Saturday night out in the town in Cyprus and England. It is the same thing in Greece and Italy and most other continental European countries.

Since living in London in September, I have seen that English people go out with one purpose in mind. To get drunk. Not to go out and have fun and have a few drinks with some friends, the sole target is getting drunk and then a good time will follow.

So if you ask me, the problem is neither the licensing laws, neither Tescos, neither the absence of a law banning drinking on public transport, it is a cultural issue. Not wishing to generalise by stereotyping a whole nation as not all Englishmen and Englishwomen fit into this category, the attitude to drinking is embedded into the culture of the country, and is probably getting worse as time passes. While in all countries antisocial behaviour from young people exists, the problem in the UK is deeper than that.

Unless the people themselves start realising that this is in fact the real problem, then no drinking ban on the tube will change the situation.

- NS-