A home truth for Gordon Brown

Prime Minister Gordon Brown entered the alcohol debate last week. He called for a co-ordinated effort from retailers, health workers and the police to crack down on under-age sales. His remarks were made at a Downing Street seminar that saw the Home Office unveil its latest initiative, a pre-Christmas campaign targeting retailers who sell to under-18s and also to customers who are already drunk. It will focus on pubs, clubs and off-licences in 90 areas where there are high levels of alcohol-related crime and disorder. Again the focus is on the licensed trade, and again it misses the point. It is now harder than ever for anyone under 18 to get a drink in this country – whether from a pub or a supermarket – so what is another “crackdown” going to achieve? The problem lies in the home – and this is something both the pub trade and the supermarket industry agree on. As Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy observed after the Downing Street get-together: "The evidence which we have all seen suggests that most of the alcohol consumed by young people is in their own home, probably bought by their parents.” His suggestion was that the legal age for consuming in the home should perhaps be the same as for licensed premises, in other words 18, or 16 for wine, beer and cider consumed with a meal. At present the law allows drinking in the home from five years old. "I think in terms of getting a clear message across, it might even help families - because young teenagers can be quite difficult to control - if they (the parents) are backed by a clear message from the law which says this is the age at which you can consume alcohol," Sir Terry added. It would not be the easiest law to enforce, or the most popular. I’m not sure I want to be told how to bring up my children. But it would help shift legal responsibility onto parents when their off-spring were found drunk or being treated for alcohol-related illnesses. There are those in the pub market that would not want to see supermarkets let off the hook over their cheap alcohol pricing policies, and might suspect this would do just that. The fact is that the issues need to be separated, and devises need to be found that start to put the emphasis for tackling under-age drinking onto the family and onto the Government to follow through. Interfering in the home is always politically sensitive, especially in the current climate, but if the prime minister is really serious about tackling the under-age alcohol issue he should have the courage to at least start talking directly to parents – and as with alcohol retailers threatening sanctions if they don’t respond. At present, parents are absent from Gordon Brown’s call for concerted action. It is not as if he doesn’t know where parents of children are. Another under-age sales clampdown for bars and off-licences smacks of tokenism. It may trap a few more renegade retailers, but for the bulk of the industry the message has already been received and acted upon. It is now someone else’s turn. Peter Martin is co-creator of M&C Report and founder of Peach Factory