Not so much Mediterranean, more wild west

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, claim that parts for the UK seem to be like the wild west in terms of lawlessness as the result of the 24 hour drinking provision brought in by the 2003 Licensing Act. This is a conclusion of a recent report.

The Committee conclude that the relaxation of drinking hours has not diminished the law and order problems. Rather, it has merely pushed them back one or two hours later.

The result is that police officers now regularly have an afternoon shift from 6 p.m. until 4 a.m. They have long hours of struggling to control drunken behaviour, officers are not available to other emergency calls, and there are fewer officers available during the day because some are on duty until 5 a.m.

The solution is not obvious. The changes were introduced because of the peak problem of late evening violence at pub closure. Nobody wishes to return to this, but equally no-one has any real proposals to deal with the later problem.