Licensing hours

[The Egg Man]

Road kill's comment on the West End Festival thread prompts the question: do we really mind how late pubs and other licensed premises open on an everyday basis?

I'm pretty open minded on the grounds I don't live too close to anywhere I can envisage benefitting from seriously late (eg 4am) opening but what about other members?

There's not a lot of buckshee disposable income around. Would extended pub hours actually be beneficial in controlling problem drinking or would people just sit at home for longer getting tanked up on cheap(ish) supermarket bevvy before heading out and hour or two later than they do now?

[RDR]

The problem these days is the amount of cheap booze that people consume at home, which has nothing to do with opening hours but also the establishments that set out to attract the younger element, mostly in city centres, which are affected by the opening hours.
Traditional pubs tend not to be the issue here, but go to any A&E when the clubs are chucking out and you'll see why a lot of A&E staff would happily see the opening hours of those places curtailed.
The home drinking scenario tends to lead to more chronic ill health in the long term.

[old jock]

Putting the health issue to one side, I am not qualified to comment

You make booze cheap people will tank up on that, nothing new there I was doin it 40 years back.

Personally I don't see the need for it, but I don't frequent clubs much these days/years/decades. Although I don't use them unless there is a valid reason for objecting I'm all for live and let live.

To be fair too, I live with a lot of pubs to both back and front and its rare for me to wakened by revelers, although it does happen. I did choose to live here too, although there has been a fair old increase in premises from when I started to live here.

Just saying