Police want to up the drinking age to 21

What a load of rubbish that idea is. They reckon its to stop yobs causing havoc when hammered.

Most of the yobs that cause havoc are under 18 so it wont make a difference. Its like speeding by 2 mph or 20mph.... its still speeding and breaking the law.

The only way around it I can see is making it illegal to sell alcohol without seeing ID first, regardless of the age of the buyer. i.e. a 30 year old has to show ID. It wont stop it completely but will help.

Also need something to kick a little respect into the kids nowadays.

Raising the legal drinking age is the same as when they were trying to raise the legal smoking age to stop under age smokers.... How will that work? They are not allowed to buy fags at 14 so how will raising the smoking age to 18 make a jot of difference?!?

I get so frustrated at knee-jerk reactions!

I'm 21 so i don't care

Whilst i dont necessarily agree with it, i can see that it might serve a purpose. A 16yr old might get away with looking ballpark 18, but never 21. Although lets face it....10yr olds will still be down the park necking white lightning and hooch either way.

It's like when they catch 14 yr old joyriders and then ban them from driving for 2 yrs - pointless basically...

Raising the legal drinking age is the same as when they were trying to raise the legal smoking age to stop under age smokers.... How will that work? They are not allowed to buy fags at 14 so how will raising the smoking age to 18 make a jot of difference?!?

it will make it harder for 14 year olds to buy them? visible differences between 14 and 16 year olds is probably less than between 14 and 18...?

same with raising the alcohol age, it'll make it harder, wont get rid of the problem, but will help.

im in favour of anything that helps.

kicking some respect into them?....whats that all about then?

How come other european coiuntries aren't tarnished by yobbish behaviour?

I agree. I think it was actually just one copper who said this. Seems like he blamed the problem on everyone else BUT the pigs. It was interesting reading on the BBC site all the comments people had left. Loads of "lets put a curfew on young people" and that kind of s*1t.

I think some people really do believe that every teenager or youth is some kind of beered up yobo, who is hiding a knife in their hoody. Also, that every teen who drinks underage is a trouble maker. Its such a shame. I drank from the age of 12 - my parents encouraged me to do so sensibly - Its not drinking that the problem, its abusing it.

Maybe if they LOWERED the age, kids could drink without having to hide out in the park or on the street and it wouldn't be cool as it would be legal. What is the first thing a kid does when you say "don't do that". They go off and do it anyway, and think they're hard. It works in Europe, but then they don't have the binge drinking culture we seem to have over here?

Ok... so kicking may have been the wrong word. But more and more kids now have no respect for any kind of authority or other peoples possessions.

Originally Posted by philbut

I agree. I think it was actually just one copper who said this. Seems like he blamed the problem on everyone else BUT the pigs....

i gave up reading after you refered to the police as pigs....

are you gutted they're trying to raise teh age limit? noe mor alcoholz

Originally Posted by Fizzy Fish

It's like when they catch 14 yr old joyriders and then ban them from driving for 2 yrs - pointless basically...

It is not pointless as the ban takes affect from when you can have a licence i.e. if you are banned then you can’t get a licence until 19!!

As for why the Europeans don’t have this problem, well IMO partly because they have not been taken over by the stupid pink and fluffy PC liberal brigade yet!! So their police don’t have a mountain of paperwork to do when arresting people, they are not restrained by the fact they have to ensure the prisoners rights are in place etc.

EU police will just beat you and nick you; ours have had their hands tied by the government too much so cant do their job as effectively! If our police were allowed to be a bit more hands on and deal with trouble makers more physically then it would put off these Yobs.

As for the age of drinking, in some parts of Europe its 14 and they serve it with your big Mac!! So the age or alcohol is not an argument to back up these claims of yobs. It’s the fact that our society is too soft on offenders and the police and justice system is all set up to be kind not discipline.

I have said it before and will say it again; to counter this problem we need to stop being so soft and re-introduce harder sentences, more hard police, national service, hanging, corporal punishment etc.

Why should prisoners have a cell to themselves with sky and a Xbox?? It should be a punishment with 4 to cell no luxury and only one hour out of the cell, to exercise.

Until we get rid of all the stupid PC and fluffiness in this country the problem will only get worse!!!

So what happens when they raise the drinking / smoking age? Would you rather have your kids drinking & smoking or snorting coke?

If the police were allowed to confiscate the beer and slap 'em round the face, they might learn to drink in private/moderation. Why try and ban everything? And why always blame it on 'youths'? Most of the trouble I see caused by drinking is grown men fighting.