BBC leading the charge this morning about the evils of drinking. On both Radio and TV, it is running with the idea that up to one in three kids are horrified at the drinking they see going on in the home.The BBC itself has commissioned the study which suggests that a third of children said they feel scared when adults drink, a fifth say they have witnessed angry and aggressive behaviour, and the majority had seen their parents drunk. On TV, David Yelland was on to talk (again) about his recovery from alcoholism. The BBC has embraced the neo-Puritanism of the last Labour administration and lobbies to make us all feel bad about any form of enjoyment.
RISE OF THE NEO-PURITANS
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Remember Islam hates drinking as well. The BBC and Islam hand in hand.
Can’t wait for the BBC to start approving of the hanging of homosexuals!!!
Only slightly on topic, but Phil Tufnell on R4 cricket commentary on Saturday ” This drinking team has a cricket problem “. An old joke , but maybe new to some here !
My first thought on hearing this item was that we’re being softened up for a ban on drinking in front of children, or some such nonsense. It’s a sad reflection on the level of propaganda inflicted on us that this is my reaction to what must be an awful problem to a small number of kids. One in three “scared when adults drink”? Sorry, that has all the hallmarks of global warming statistics and is about as credible.
Even John Humphrys appeared somewhat sceptical. Wouldn’t surprise me to find the dead hand of the EU behind this somewhere.
This country has a serious problem with drink. For once I agree with the BBC and this needs to be discussed seriously. It is not “nanny state” .
My family has had personal experience of the devasting effect of alchohol and I can assure you it is not something I would wish on any family.
The failure of our culture to cope with drink is a recurrent feature of our history and in this value free age it is re surfacing again.
Personally I loathe drink but then I am biased.
Yes you are biased but who are you to speak for everyone else. Most people do drink sensibly and if occasionally they get a little drunk, providing they do not damage people or property, what business is it of yours. I am sick and tired of you weeping and wailing nobodies trying to run other peoples lives when you cannot run your own. Go away
I suggest you read what I wrote. I was expressing a personal view and do not presume to speak for you or anybody else. But our culture does have a problem coping with drink and I suggest you visit any town or city centre at weekends if you disagree.
Indeed it does. But I simply can’t accept that a survey which asserts “A third said they feel scared when adults drink” is discussing the matter seriously. That just stinks of manipulation.
Dave S,
Thank you for sharing that and I respect your view and am indeed sorry to read about how drink has brought problems to your door.
My point is that regardless of the rights and wrong – the BBC has no business creating faux news, it is there to report it. Unbiased.
David Vance
so all the people who phoned in with alcoholism, the carnage caused to there children for instance, the deaths, the kids who end up in care homes because of it [i did for 16 years and then it killed both of my parents] -your saying that is Bias? That the BBC shouldnt report this? A highly inconvenient truth but true- there are a lot of alcoholics out there that do nothing, a lot of kids get hurt and basically there does indeed need to be “public awareness” you complete and utter fool!
On the flipside -look at our towns on weekends.
This IS a disease in 2 ways -the disease of alcoholism and the dis- ease it causes.
The BBC are not reporting facts, they are reporting loaded questions answered by children. By all means report the youth who get drunk and devistate our city centres at the weekend. Then look at the causes – the lack of discipline in schools, the lack of morality shown most nights on BBC and other channels. But using a survey of people below the age of responsibility is pure propaganda.
“Typically, the most effective propaganda campaigns are based upon the truth. However, propaganda presents the facts selectively in order to encourage people to come to a particular conclusion. Propaganda often delivers loaded messages designed to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information that is being presented.”
http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/Definition-of-Propaganda.html
By all means we should educate children about consuming excesive amounts of alcohol, but we should not use children to spread propaganda for the un-liberal elite.
I was listening to this just now, trying to be serious, give Humphrys the benefit of the doubt. But then two things made me laugh out loud, bringing home DV’s point that this is in fact a story invented for purpose by the BBC.
First time was when the Alcohol Concern guy was saying how awful the survey’s results were. At one point he was complaining about how too many children have seen their parents drunk, and Humphrys said that didn’t sound right, as it’s not a crime for parents to get a little tiddly one Christmas in their entire lives. This was the second point where he allowed that it depends on how they ask the questions. So then the Alcohol Concern guy said he hadn’t seen the report, had no idea about what they did with it. All he knew were the bullet points he was brought in to moan about this morning. He was there to advocate for his cause, not actually defend the survey. The Today producers didn’t even bother briefing him. Lazily assuming he would be all over it because he held the correct thoughts, I suppose.
Humphrys obviously knew this all along, as he didn’t say a word when the guy admitted that he didn’t know anything about the survey, which he would have done had it been an actual interview where he as seriously trying to do his job instead of play along for a story.
The second time I laughed out loud – and stopped listening entirely – was when the Wetherspoon pubs guy got fed up with Humphrys blaming pubs for the problem and pointed out that in fact half of all drinking in the UK is now done at home, or at least outside of pubs. “Aha!” cried Humphrys, “that’s because it’s cheaper in the shops.” Well, yes. So how is that a challenge to the pubs guy’s defense? It isn’t, of course. Humphrys is just on auto-pilot, not really caring where the segment is going, as it has a pre-determined outcome.
I laughed out loud when the Wetherspoon pubs guy pointed out that the boy in the audio segment said his house was filled with empty cans. So it’s not really a pub problem, and the streets are filled with at least as much – if not more – with drunken youth who drink from bottles or cans they bought in shops as with drunks pouring out of pubs. In fact, women drinking at home – inlcuding the drunken mother of the boy in the audio clip – are the biggest target of beverage company marketing. There’s also the problem of parents letting children drink at home. Again, not in pubs.
Which was part of the guy’s point the whole time (pubs were being unfairly legislated to death because of these false charges), and showed that there was in fact no substance to the reason why the guy was brought there – to defend pubs against being totally blamed for the drinking culture. Humphrys was just attacking for the sake of it, with no rhyme or reason, showing that the whole story had been manufactured, and the guests arranged haphazardly. It wasn’t that he was fair, challenging both people on both sides of the argument. That’s because there were no sides. Every time Humphrys took issue with something one of the guests said, it only revealed even more that the only thing even related to the survey was the concept of having a drink in front of children. And even that challenge to the pub guy fell apart on examination.
Apparently Wetherspoon pubs already have a rule that parents with children may have only two drinks, and must have a meal as well. It was blatantly obvious that Humphrys didn’t know about that, either, because his challenge to the pubs guy revealed Humphrys didn’t even understand what the guy meant at first. His producers hadn’t done their homework. Or just didn’t care, assuming that rural or working-class urban pubs = binge drinking = bad, so of course there was an epidemic of parents getting loaded in front of kids in pubs all across the land.
There were two adovcates for unrelated causes which were only tangentially related to the story of the day. It was a poorly manufactured puppet show, with little thought put into the segment. Humphrys had a part to play, nothing more.
Aside from that, I noticed that the voices in the audio clip were “modified” electronically to protect their identities. Were their accents modified as well? There are no details at all about how this survey was done, or where, or what kind of people they polled. I agree that this is a manufactured story just so the BBC can have a little Nanny State fun. It’s for the children!
And pubs are a great British tradition so must be attacked by the BBC.
I agree with Dave S. The same thing goes for smoking. It’s not so much a question of what the nanny state chooses to do or not to do about these self-inflicted burdens on the health service, but whether the BBC should be preaching at all. If a report comes out it should report it.
Commissioning their own report comes into a different category, but it’s hypocritical of the BBC to feign surprise and disapproval of what the findings show when they are guilty themselves of encouraging boozing.
As a non drinker I notice the subliminal but relentless promotion of alcohol as the only means by which one can, a.) celebrate; b.) console oneself; and c.) have a good time.
Even property shows invariably include: “Can you imagine yourself sitting here, glasso’wine….” as though the glasso’wine’s a requisite for enjoyment and sophistication.
Manipulation? That’s manipulation too.
Lad and ladettes actually boast about their ability to down vast quantities of drink, or pretend to be cross with themselves over their weakness – “you know what I’m like”
Bo.Ring.
Seeing ones parents drunk does cause anxiety and insecurity, and undermines family stability.
Go to the pub as much as you like. Just know that staggering around being repulsive is not big and it’s not clever.
The disgusting Nazi tactics used against smoking are now being used against drinking
It is no coincidence that the countries with the strictest alcohol laws (US and Britain) are the countries where drinking is on the increase