The Debatable Land

Kingsley's Rules

Roger Scruton reviews Kingsley Amis's Everyday Drinking, now happily reissued:

At the start, Amis announces certain 'general principles' to be followed in creating drinks, all of which can be derived, by natural drinkers' logic, from the first of them, which holds that 'up to a point [i.e. short of offering your guests one of those Balkan plonks marketed as wine, Cyprus sherry, poteen and the like], go for quantity rather than quality'. Spirits prevail over the stuff that might soften their impact, as illustrated by the Lucky Jim, which consists of 12 to 15 parts vodka to one part vermouth and two parts cucumber juice, and there is a drink for just about every ordeal that Kingsley's ordeal-filled life could be expected to present.

Thus Paul Fussell's Milk Punch (one part brandy, one part bourbon, four parts milk, plus nutmeg and frozen milk cubes) is 'to be drunk immediately on rising, in lieu of eating breakfast. It is an excellent heartener and sustainer at the outset of a hard day: not only before an air trip or an interview, but when you have in prospect one of those gruelling nominal festivities like Christmas, the wedding of an old friend of your wife's or taking the family over to Gran's for Sunday dinner'.

Now there's some Thanksgiving advice my American friends and readers can use...

From Gin Lane to Faliraki

Ah, Sarah Lyall. Bless her. The New York Times' London correspondent has an entertainingly gruesome piece on the lagered-up misbehaviour of Brits on tour. No-one who has spent any time on Cyprus or the Costa del Sol will need reminding of the horrors that await the unwary or innocent traveller who stumbles upon the modern British tourist in his - and, indeed, her - natural element. It is, as you would expect from Ms Lyall, well done and, in places, appeallingly, well, dry:

But they [Brits in Greece] said that the lurid stories are media exaggerations.

“I’ve never seen anyone get stabbed the whole time I’ve been here,” said Chris Robinson, 21, speaking outside the Loft bar, which had a special deal: four drinks and two shots for $8.

Similarly, Eleanor Seaver, 20, said that she had been in Malia for two months, working in a club, and that she had never once been in a fight. On the contrary, she said, people are comradely and helpful. “If there’s a girl being sick in the streets, you see people helping her out,” she said. “We watch out for each other here.”

Paul Fisher, a 49-year-old Welshman who runs a bar and a motorbike-rental shop, said the stories both depressed the tourist trade and, perversely, drew the sort of visitors for whom drunken anarchy is an attractive prospect.

“We don’t like you lot coming in and ruining the place,” Mr. Fisher said, referring to reporters. He opened a drawer and produced a copy of the celebrity magazine Closer. An article inside featured a young female British tourist’s “booze-fueled orgy with four men” in Malia.

Things like that give Malia a bad name, Mr. Fisher said. “This is wrong and it’s overexaggerated,” he said.

On the other hand, he conceded, “for 10 weeks, this place is littered with kids being sick and unconscious in the streets.”

James Poulos suspects Britons behave like this because we inhabit "the most mirthless of all pink police states" while Rod Dreher wonders if a decline in religious observance could be connected to this destructive ghastliness. Well, up to a point my friends. 

It is true that other countries do not behave like this. Perhaps they have adapted to modernity better than Britons. But if one takes a longer or broader look at the matter then one realises that this sort of boorish drunkeness has been the norm, not the exception in British history. There were reasons beyond a desire for control and the pleasures of tut-tutting disapproval for the rise of the temperance movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Fun fact: Winston Churchill was kicked out of the House of Commons in 1922 when he lost his Dundee seat to Neddy Scrymgeour of the Scottish Prohibition Party. Second fun, or surprising fact: whole areas of Glasgow, such as Cathcart, remained dry until as recently as the 1970s).

One need only think of Hogarth's etchings warning of the pernicious social consequences of drink or, a century later, of Cruikshank's cartoons such as "The Bottle" or "The Worship of Bacchus" to remember that booze has been a, perhaps the, major social issue in Britain for at least the past quarter of a millenium. Of course, Hogarth championed Beer Street as a sweet and healthy alternative to the sozzled excess of Gin Lane but then again, beer was generally healthier than water in those days.

Something Must Be Done! This is Something!

Chris Dillow has a splendid post filleting the Scottish government's plans to raise the age at which one may purchase alcohol at an off-license from 18 to 21. As he rightly says this is the usual mixture of paternalism, petty managerialism and soul-crushing illiberalism trussed up with a justification that there's a problem so, rather than enforce existing laws, the public needs the protection of additional measures that, regardless of their likely effectiveness, demonstrate that the government is listening and doing something. Anything.

It's too much to suppose that our parliamentarians might be impressed by any philosophical or moral objection to their creation of yet more laws prohibiting or curtailing people's freedoms, but they might, one hopes, be persuaded by some practical examples of the consequences of their folly. Thus, for instance, to take but one example that leaps to mind, a 19 year old squaddy who buys a bottle of champagne to celebrate with his family his happy return to Scotland from a tour of duty in Afghanistan will be breaking the law. How can that be right? You can doubtless come up with your own hypothetical scenarios demonstrating the absurdity of this measure...

Department of Advertising

Shamefully, I don't think I'd heard of Billy Beer until Mike Crowley posted this fantastic advertisement at The Stump. I mean, what better slogan could there be?

Could an reader who's actually tasted the stuff let me know what it's like? Bonus points for using Billy Beer as a vehicle for measuring and interpreting the successes and failures of his brother's Presidency.And if, as John McCain claims, a Barack Obama presidency will, in some mysterious fashion, be Jimmy Carter's second term does that mean that Billy Beer will make a comeback too? We can but hope...

Adventures in Marketing

Lots of good things come from China, but this is magnificent. Perhaps James Fallows can do a series of posts on counterfeit Chinese whisky?



Via, here, here, here, here and here.

Guinness is Good For You; Government Is Not

In the past nine months four pubs in Selkirk, my home town, have closed. It would be simplistic to presume that the liberty-quashing smoking ban was the sole cause of this regrettable trend; it would be idiotic to suppose it didn't play a part.

Still, that's only one part of legislators' attempts to run publicans out of town. Consider this latest wheeze, for instance, as told by the Southern Reporter:

Pub licensees, who currently pay £172 for a three-year licence to sell alcohol, will have to fork out up to £1,600 just to register their premises under the new [licensing] system. An annual fee on top of that has yet to be worked out.

Registration also involves all applicants, old and new, commissioning and presenting detailed drawings of their outlets to ensure they comply with fire and health and safety regulations. Such plans must also highlight seating arrangements and areas suitable for children. Operating plans and risk assessments must also be supplied.

On top of that, every operator must obtain a personal licence costing £50. Only after special training, again underwritten by the premises licensee, will these authorisations be granted.

...The new regime must be fully in place by September next year to meet the requirements of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005.

Lord knows what was so very terrible about the old system. But according to a spokeswoman for Scottish Borders Council,

"The new system must be self-financing so the fees reflect the need for us to take on two licensing standards officers, who will police the system and whose posts are currently being advertised."

I presume, incidentally, that "operator" in this context means "bar staff". How much training does it really take to learn how to pull a pint and what justification does the council have for charging pub-owners £50 for each of their staff to demonstrate that they know their heavy from their stout? UPDATE: I'm told in fact that "operator" refers to the licensee not bar staff.

Also:

The new conditions outlaw any irresponsible [emphasis added] drink promotions, including any drink likely to "appeal largely to people under 18", free drinks on the purchase of other drinks, and anything which encourages the quick consumption of alcohol, for example, happy hours.

Leaving the question of how you can appeal to under-age drinkers, it seems that they're trying outlaw a) thirst and b) closing time - both of which encourage rapid boozing.

Jesus wept.

Ban the Badger!

Marvellous. From The Scotsman's diary column:

YOU'LL never eat lunch in this town again: the landlord of the Easter Road bar and eatery, Utopia, has placed a poster in his window, warning Alistair Darling to keep off the premises.

It shows a noose above Mr Darling's head, with "Barred" above his picture and "Not Welcome In This Pub" below. It is owner James Hughes' personal protest against new duties on beer, wine and spirits in this month's Budget.

"The poster is meant to be humorous, but to make it clear to punters that it is not us who are putting prices up, but Mr Darling," he said. "The noose signifies that it is the government who should be hanged and not the licensed trade."

Alba does not in any way condone the idea of a necktie party for the Chancellor. He advises the tactics employed by George Washington, who raised a militia force of 13,000 men to quash the Whiskey Rebellion – that's right, whiskey – of 1794 after riotous Pennsylvania publicans tarred and feathered a tax collector.

Naturally, this has inspired public-spirited bloggers. The Devil's Kitchen has created this nifty poster for display in your local. There's also, of course, a Facebook group.

Coke now cheaper than cider? Only in Brown's Britain...

Fraser Nelson again (emphasis added):

The biggest story in today’s Budget – ie, what will hit the public immediately – is the booze hikes. From 6pm tonight, they take effect. An extra 4p on a pint of beer, 3p on a glass of wine (touchingly, the Red Book says 175ml is typical – has anyone from the Treasury ordered a glass recently?), and 55p on a 70cl bottle of spirits. These increases will rise at 2% in future years on top on inflation (itself expected to be 2%). So, congratulations Gordon: a line of cocaine (on Dec07 street prices) is now cheaper than half a pint of cider. What a wonderful country we live in.

Of course, the other way of looking at this is to wonder at the efficiencies of the free market. Despite government's best efforts to complicate matters, the Colombian cartels - and their partners -  continue to deliver extraordinary value for money. Imagine what could happen if the government operated along similar principles (absent the violence, perhaps)? Instead we enjoy more tinkering and still more regulation...

McGuinness's less than surprising attitude to booze

James Forsyth says it is "deeply comic" for Martin McGuiness to complain:

“I am not a fan of East-Enders or Coronation Street but my wife and my children, particularly the girls, watch the programme. I am appalled at the drunkenness that is quite clear for everybody to see and all of that before the 9 o’clock watershed when children as young as 8, 9, 10 and 11 are watching. Now I regard that as irresponsible broadcasting and I think something should be done about it.”

Now of course, James is right to point out that Mr McGuiness's role in murdering countless civilians scarcely gives him the clout to act, in James' words, "a moral arbiter".

Perhaps so. But I couldn't help recalling all the hard-faced Republicans I used to meet at debates in Dublin. They were never much of a party crowd (the Unionists - at least those Unionists prepared to come to Dublin - were much more fun) and, in fact, I can't recall any of them accepting a drink, let alone cracking a joke. They were far too serious and stern-eyed for that sort of caper. No surprise: even in the mid-1990s Sinn Fein still though of itself as a revolutionary movement. The party's spokesmen all had the grim-eyed, humourless disposition characteristic of the zealot through the ages.

Then again, McGuinness's social conservatism is none too surprising either. In the first place, he belongs to a movement that sees precious little divide between the personal and the political; secondly he's an Ulsterman after all and an Ulsterman of a generation that could scarcely be considered libertine. For sure, the IRA's habit of knee-capping drug dealers was down to the organisation's desire to control organised crime for itself as well as arrogating to itself the right to be its own police force in the areas of Belfast it controlled, but there was also, it should be recognised, a moral element to it's punishment beatings as well. That might have been a secondary motivation but it was there to at least some extent in some of its activities.

Incidentally, the Times article James quotes is a useful example of how stories are trussed these days. It begins:

He has spent much of the past year in the company of an implacable public moraliser whose long career of saying no has included thunderous protests against everything from Irish flags to line-dancing.

But yesterday Belfast was asking itself whether Martin McGuinness has been spending too much time in the company of the Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, after the former IRA leader condemned the “drunkenness” being depicted in television soap operas.

In a reproach of which his new boss would have been proud, Mr McGuinness said: “I have to say, I am absolutely appalled at the level of concentration around the pub in the programmes.”

Was Belfast really "asking itself" this? It seems unlikely. No matter. The important thing is that it's just a bit of fun innit? Next:

Mr McGuinness’s comments, which came after a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Dublin at which representatives from all the administrations in the British Isles discussed measures to tackle drug and alcohol misuse among young people, led to speculation that the Sinn Fein MP for Mid Ulster is succumbing to the strict Presbyterian outlook of his famously outspoken boss at the Stormont power-sharing Assembly.

Oh really? No hint of speculation is cited in the article and, as the journalist surely knows, the idea of McGuinness "succumbing" to Presbyterianism is laughable. Indeed, the very next paragraph demolishes the entire premise of the "story":

Although Mr McGuiness’s [sic] comments provoked amusement in Belfast yesterday, nobody should really be surprised – at 57, he is still some distance behind Mr Paisley in age but is known for his teetotalism and strict Catholic upbringing. He is described as highly self-disciplined, and has a traditionalist Christian background that makes him paradoxically similar to Mr Paisley.

But of course, "Teetotal McGuinness deplores TV Boozing" isn't much of a "story" is it? Nor is "Christians Have Lots in Common." Then again, the way this piece is presented is another reminder that, for most Britons, Ulster remains something of a foreign country, even as it endures as a part of the United Kingdom.

 

 

Depends upon what you mean by "polluter pays"...

Good grief:

THE Scottish Government is preparing to take on supermarkets and off-licences in the battle against alcohol abuse, forcing them to pay a levy under new plans to make retailers meet the social cost of the country's "bevvy culture".

Proposals for a "polluter pays" charge have been extended from pubs and clubs to include every shop that sells alcohol in Scotland, amid a growing perception among ministers and senior officials that retailers are fuelling crime and anti-social behaviour by selling liquor...

Details of the proposed levy will be announced in the spring and will be subject to public consultation, but Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, yesterday made it clear that off-licences and supermarkets were now in the firing line for the new measure. "The 'polluter pays' principle should apply across the board," he said. "More alcohol is now being sold in off-sales than through on sales. And the problems of binge drinking are not restricted to city centres – they're being felt throughout Scotland and in every age group.

"Somebody has to meet the cost of these consequences. It would be manifestly wrong to impose a 'polluter pays' levy only on pubs in city centres and not on supermarkets and off-licences in other towns and communities, if that's where we're also seeing problems."

What next? A special tax on chip shops? If Ministers are concerned by under-age drinking, mightn't it be a sensible idea to enforce existing laws rather than create new taxes? Just an idea. Or just ban booze? And if this is how we're now supposed to view perfectly honest retailers, then under this proposal, wouldn't it be possible to prosecute supermarkets for being accessories to any booze-induced act of criminal behaviour? Including, one would presume, murder? And shouldn't car dealers pay a "polluter pays levy" every time someone smashes up a car they've sold, inconveniencig everyone else and occupying vast amounts of police and emergency services time? Or,or, well, one could go on... But what's the point?

Meanwhile, elsewhere in this fair land:

Tolls have been officially abolished on the Forth and Tay road bridges after years of campaigning by drivers.

The final fee-paying motorists crossed the bridges at midnight before the charges, of £1 on the Forth Bridge and 80p on the Tay Bridge, were lifted.

Scrapping of the tolls was a major manifesto commitment by the SNP during the 2007 Scottish elections.

Legislation to remove the fee was given royal assent last month. It means Scotland now has no chargeable roads.

In this case, then, polluters don't have to pay... Ah, the sweet logic of government.

Dick Cheney's energy task force is transparent by comparison

Interesting article by Elaine Sciolino in today's New York Times on the brouhaha over the proposed expansion of Champagne's AOC, increasing the number of communes legally permitted to grow grapes to be made into champagne. The reason? Increased demand for the bubbles around the world.

As I say, it's a good piece. But I would wager that the guts of the real story lurk in these two paragraphs (emphasis added):

For the most part, the 40 proposed communes fill in holes in existing Champagne areas, much of it near the Champagne centers of Reims and Épernay, rather than extending the perimeter. For reasons that have yet to be explained, Germaine and Orbais-l’Abbaye, two of the villages in the Marne region that currently enjoy Champagne-growing status, would be thrown out.

Complicating matters, identities of the government-appointed experts who chose the 40 communes are secret, raising suspicions about their impartiality.

I bet the reasons haven't been explained! Raising suspicions? I'll say! Impartiality? What a concept. In fairness to Ms Sciolino, the dry fashion in which these paragraphs are written hints she knows full well what's going on here: her tone suggests half a raised eyebrow at least).

It's odds-on that there's a juicy tale of cronyism and corruption to explain what will doubtless be a set of logic-defying recommendations once the final proposals are submitted.

Lock up your daughters: the libertarian carnival is in town

Good lord. further evidence that, despite improvements in recent years, Washington still has work to do. Today's WaPo runs a piece noting that the free minds and free markets crowd at Reason are insidiously recruiting innocent young Washingtonians to the libertarian cult by, yup, throwing a couple of parties a month. The horror! To wit:

Four minutes into Reason magazine's monthly bash at the Big Hunt lounge, and every Libertarian-as-Bacchus fantasy you've entertained plays out before your widening eyes.

Nick Gillespie, the leather-jacketed, Mama-said-you're-dangerous editor of the political rag peers at you intently. "What do you need?" he asks. "Do you need a drink? A cigarette?"

Favourite bit, however? This:

Last month the staff launched Reason.tv, home of "The Drew Carey Project" (dude's a libertarian) as well as other anti-Big Brother videos. And on Jan. 1, Gillespie will leave his print magazine role to bulk up the presence of Reason.tv and Reason.com. His replacement is Matt Welch, a former Los Angeles Times opinion writer who wears pink vests with rhinestone buttons and has a French wife.

[Emphasis added]. So there you have it. Evidence that to be considered dangerously hip or radical or "out there" in this town you only need a pink waistcoat and a French wife. Blimey.

Happy Repeal Day

December 5th, 1933, American becomes a better country as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution is repealed and the Prohibition era ends. Now, about that War on Drugs...?

Fred Thompson's Un-American War on Whiskey

So, Fred Thompson is just a conservative good-old-boy from Tennessee whose folksy charm is his biggest selling point. OK, well then you might expect that Fred would be a champion of traditional Tennessee values. Not so!

The Los Angeles Times reviews the 88 cases Thompson prosecuted as a US Attorney in Nashville between 1969 and 1972 and discovers that though:

There were a few bank robbers and counterfeiters. But more than anything, Thompson took on the state's moonshiners and a local culture, rooted in Tennessee's hills and hollows, that celebrated the independent whiskey maker's battle against the government's revenue agents.

Twenty-seven of his cases involved moonshining -- more than any other crime.

"Hell, I made whiskey and was violating the law, but I didn't do nothing wrong," said one of Thompson's many moonshining defendants, Kenneth Whitehead. "I would do it again if I had a still. I can't afford a still now."

...For a small-town boy such as Thompson, pursuing rural whiskey makers represented a mild apostasy.

"Rocky Top," one of Tennessee's official state songs, tells of "two strangers," presumably tax agents, who disappear forever while "lookin' for a moonshine still" on a mountaintop. NASCAR auto racing grew from roots in bootlegging, and movies such as Robert Mitchum's 1958 classic "Thunder Road" romanticized the moonshine culture.

Nearly 40 years after the demise of Prohibition, most of Tennessee's counties remained dry, creating a demand for moonshine -- home-brewed, untaxed liquor. The federal levy on legal whiskey was more than $10 a gallon. By contrast, a Tennessean could buy moonshine for $6 a gallon.

Chasing the moonshiners "was hard work," said Charles Lowe, who investigated cases for the federal division then called Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "The population in general bought the whiskey, and they kind of sided with the bootleggers philosophically. But Fred believed in what he was doing. . . . He fought."

As the t-shirt says, Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Should Be A Convenience Store Not A Government Agency. How can any red-blooded son of Appalachia (or anywhere else for that matter) vote in good conscience for a man with Thompson's dubious record?

First CAMRA takes Manhattan?

This New York Times piece by Eric Asimov has, for British readers, a certain charm. It's rather like seeing the world through alien eyes. My what strange yet wondrous habits you quaintly old-fashioned humans have:

I WAS sitting at a noisy bar on a beautiful fall afternoon, watching the bartender work, and she was indeed working.

She pulled down on the tap, then pushed back, pulled down and pushed up, in rhythmic repetition like a farmhand at a well. The ale poured slowly into a mug, at first all foam, then turning translucent before suddenly clarifying into a brilliant suds-topped amber.

I touched the faceted glass, cool, but not cold. A floral-citrus aroma rose up, and as I took my first sip I marveled at how soft and delicate the carbonation was, the bubbles giving the flavors lift and energy without aggression.

This was beer the really old-fashioned way.

Yes, he's just had a proper pint of beer. And in New York City to boot. Apparently there are now a few bars in the city that can be trusted to look after cask-conditioned ale without ruining it and, just as usefully, breweries keen to supply them with real ale. Another small step for civilisation.