Human rights, civil liberties and democracy are all things that any civilised country should aim to be. And from what I understand the Secretary of State for Transport was talking about them on Question Time last night.
Well here's one thought for the Right Hon. Gentleman, why if he is so interested in these principles is he about to criminalise people in the United Kingdom for no better reason than a few sound bytes.
Yes That Might Mean You!
The proposed changes in the law regarding drink and drug taking whilst driving could see thousands of people banned and criminalised through a complete lack of understanding not through a willful challenge to law and order.
I have written to the Mr Hammond questioning his thought process and as I am the UK's most experienced drink drive rehabilitation tutor you might have thought he would have had the decency if not the courtesy to reply.
Well think again because the response was from one of his faceless minions within the department who has no real idea of the nature of the problem that is facing this country because hey they never drink and drive only bad people do!
So the real question is will Mr Hammond sit down with me and discuss a way forward or will he trample over my civil liberties, my democratic rights to question a Member of Parliament and a Member of the Government of our country.
Friday, 1 July 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Alcohol in Schools
I was yet again asked a question this week which yet again I find very difficult to justify my answer to. Why difficult, well put simply I have an answer but it still doesn't justify why schools don't do the blindingly obvious!
Why do we not teach kids about alcohol? They teach them about drugs don't they?
Firstly we have to look at the system. Teachers train to teach a subject with a reserve subject. They do this for years and they specialise in that subject. This is a good thing for the academic subjects and a bad one when it comes to life outside the academic plastic bubble. I call it this simply because we are protected inside it from all the nastier things in our lives.
Unfortunately when children go home at night they step outside the bubble and teachers who also step outside the bubble cannot rely on their experiences there to be brought back to the children. Why? Well it would indicate teachers are human and by definition not perfect. My best teachers were without a shadow of a doubt the ones who combined the two together well.
Back to the system. Under the Blair Government there was an extension of Thatcherite ideas regarding how things should be taught. In many ways it was almost a retrograde to the Victorian Times when teaching was about propaganda. Gone were the free thinkers of the 1950's and 60's who had interestingly shaped the thoughts of the Thatchers and the Blairs, it was back to by the book by the numbers.
So let us introduce the great Tony Blair document: The National Alcohol Strategy. Hundreds of pages written by pseudo experts who had hardly ever stepped outside their own plastic bubble or should I say University Office. And the amusing thing? Well they can't even do basic mathematics which all things considered is quite worrying bearing in mind they are telling us to count and limit our units.
This document was supposed to be the basis by which alcohol teaching took place in the UK. And there lies the obvious problem.
Getting untrained teachers to teach from this text book full of basic wrongs is about as sensible as getting US Intelligence to go searching for Osama Bin Laden!
Or in other words paying lip service to the problem with a bit of good spin and the problem will disappear.
Well it hasn't and we need to do something about it now.
We need serious people, experienced people who will come into schools and teach our children the truth.
I volunteer. I'm happy to do it, for free.
Bet you though not many schools will take me up on the offer. Why not? Because I don't preach from the Bible. I don't sit in an Ivory Tower and I don't wear a Police Badge and therefor how can I be right?
Well I have studied this subject for 33 years, more than most academics, certainly more than any Police Officer, and probably more than most executives in the Drinks Industry.
And the worrying thing for one side is that I don't say drink is all bad so I can't be the right person to teach young people.
Wrong! With my own personal experiences of how crippling alcohol can be if misused, my vast experience at working with individuals and groups who have sought knowledge and my vehement desire to eradicate half truths and mis-truths I am the perfect person.
I wonder if they have the courage or like the present incumbents of Westminster they would prefer to put their head in the sands!
Why do we not teach kids about alcohol? They teach them about drugs don't they?
Firstly we have to look at the system. Teachers train to teach a subject with a reserve subject. They do this for years and they specialise in that subject. This is a good thing for the academic subjects and a bad one when it comes to life outside the academic plastic bubble. I call it this simply because we are protected inside it from all the nastier things in our lives.
Unfortunately when children go home at night they step outside the bubble and teachers who also step outside the bubble cannot rely on their experiences there to be brought back to the children. Why? Well it would indicate teachers are human and by definition not perfect. My best teachers were without a shadow of a doubt the ones who combined the two together well.
Back to the system. Under the Blair Government there was an extension of Thatcherite ideas regarding how things should be taught. In many ways it was almost a retrograde to the Victorian Times when teaching was about propaganda. Gone were the free thinkers of the 1950's and 60's who had interestingly shaped the thoughts of the Thatchers and the Blairs, it was back to by the book by the numbers.
So let us introduce the great Tony Blair document: The National Alcohol Strategy. Hundreds of pages written by pseudo experts who had hardly ever stepped outside their own plastic bubble or should I say University Office. And the amusing thing? Well they can't even do basic mathematics which all things considered is quite worrying bearing in mind they are telling us to count and limit our units.
This document was supposed to be the basis by which alcohol teaching took place in the UK. And there lies the obvious problem.
Getting untrained teachers to teach from this text book full of basic wrongs is about as sensible as getting US Intelligence to go searching for Osama Bin Laden!
Or in other words paying lip service to the problem with a bit of good spin and the problem will disappear.
Well it hasn't and we need to do something about it now.
We need serious people, experienced people who will come into schools and teach our children the truth.
I volunteer. I'm happy to do it, for free.
Bet you though not many schools will take me up on the offer. Why not? Because I don't preach from the Bible. I don't sit in an Ivory Tower and I don't wear a Police Badge and therefor how can I be right?
Well I have studied this subject for 33 years, more than most academics, certainly more than any Police Officer, and probably more than most executives in the Drinks Industry.
And the worrying thing for one side is that I don't say drink is all bad so I can't be the right person to teach young people.
Wrong! With my own personal experiences of how crippling alcohol can be if misused, my vast experience at working with individuals and groups who have sought knowledge and my vehement desire to eradicate half truths and mis-truths I am the perfect person.
I wonder if they have the courage or like the present incumbents of Westminster they would prefer to put their head in the sands!
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
A Personal View
Alcohol has been part of my life since childhood. I remember fondly the Christmas parties where my family would come together and as a treat I could have some of my Uncle Harry's home brew shandy. The wonderful happy times of eating pork pies and mushy peas on New Years Eve followed by a small sherry and orange to bring in the New Year.
Forward to my life at 13 when every 3 weeks or so me and my dad would go down to the incinerator in Huddersfield with several Fyfes banana boxes with the top covered by a sealed down Huddersfield Daily Examiner, a broadsheet evening paper. They rattled and one day I peeked inside to discover that my beloved father, successful businessman, ex Rugby League Player and Paratrooper was in fact drinking 3 bottles of Scotch or Vodka per night.
Forward to my University days and coming home and rowing with my mother who would not accept that my father had a serious alcohol problem and when he fell stark naked into the bath cracking his head wide open she refused to allow me to take him to hospital. She refused at the point of a carving knife threatening to run me through if I didn't stop trying to help him. I am ashamed to say it is the one and only time I have ever struck a woman purely in self defence. She was proud with an Irish Catholic background and this sort of thing didn't happen in our family...ever. My father's background is ironically Scottish Protestant.
Forward to the moment when I flew home from London after discovering that my mother had ovarian cancer to be met at the hospital by a man clearly seven sheets to the wind and me having to deal with that alongside comforting a woman who was destined to die 6 weeks later. The sixty thousand pound insurance payout well that was pissed up against a wall in 6 months.
Forward a few weeks when he moved South to 'be with me' and my family and the start of the cycle of rehab units, the Salvation Army, AA, Clouds. Thousands spent both privately and by the NHS to the finality of him signing out of Clouds House in East Knoyle on the day of my son's first birthday and turning up at my house paralytic.
And then the walk to the bus stop me telling him how much I loved him but if he turned up drunk he was not welcome.
And then the fifteen years of wondering what had happened to him, Well I knew of the incident of the refit of the QE2 where he had the contract and he was thrown off the the contract because of drunken antics. I knew he'd been back to his old haunts in Southampton, that he'd been deported from America and my greatest worry the rumour that he'd owed money to the wrong people and was propping up the M3 extension on the Winchester by pass.
And then the reunion, He had changed he had become the father that I loved again he had become the Grandfather I had hoped for my children but we had all paid the price.
He died a year later.
No amount of cost would have stopped him drinking, no amount of minimum price would have prevented the empty whisky bottles from stacking up. Money was never the issue.
I have spent the last 33 years of my life trying to understand why a man would put a bottle over his child and his grandchildren. I have become an International Expert in Alcohol. And still I do not have the answer. What I do know is that making it more expensive was never the answer, He would beg steal or borrow to get that next glass of whisky
Forward to my life at 13 when every 3 weeks or so me and my dad would go down to the incinerator in Huddersfield with several Fyfes banana boxes with the top covered by a sealed down Huddersfield Daily Examiner, a broadsheet evening paper. They rattled and one day I peeked inside to discover that my beloved father, successful businessman, ex Rugby League Player and Paratrooper was in fact drinking 3 bottles of Scotch or Vodka per night.
Forward to my University days and coming home and rowing with my mother who would not accept that my father had a serious alcohol problem and when he fell stark naked into the bath cracking his head wide open she refused to allow me to take him to hospital. She refused at the point of a carving knife threatening to run me through if I didn't stop trying to help him. I am ashamed to say it is the one and only time I have ever struck a woman purely in self defence. She was proud with an Irish Catholic background and this sort of thing didn't happen in our family...ever. My father's background is ironically Scottish Protestant.
Forward to the moment when I flew home from London after discovering that my mother had ovarian cancer to be met at the hospital by a man clearly seven sheets to the wind and me having to deal with that alongside comforting a woman who was destined to die 6 weeks later. The sixty thousand pound insurance payout well that was pissed up against a wall in 6 months.
Forward a few weeks when he moved South to 'be with me' and my family and the start of the cycle of rehab units, the Salvation Army, AA, Clouds. Thousands spent both privately and by the NHS to the finality of him signing out of Clouds House in East Knoyle on the day of my son's first birthday and turning up at my house paralytic.
And then the walk to the bus stop me telling him how much I loved him but if he turned up drunk he was not welcome.
And then the fifteen years of wondering what had happened to him, Well I knew of the incident of the refit of the QE2 where he had the contract and he was thrown off the the contract because of drunken antics. I knew he'd been back to his old haunts in Southampton, that he'd been deported from America and my greatest worry the rumour that he'd owed money to the wrong people and was propping up the M3 extension on the Winchester by pass.
And then the reunion, He had changed he had become the father that I loved again he had become the Grandfather I had hoped for my children but we had all paid the price.
He died a year later.
No amount of cost would have stopped him drinking, no amount of minimum price would have prevented the empty whisky bottles from stacking up. Money was never the issue.
I have spent the last 33 years of my life trying to understand why a man would put a bottle over his child and his grandchildren. I have become an International Expert in Alcohol. And still I do not have the answer. What I do know is that making it more expensive was never the answer, He would beg steal or borrow to get that next glass of whisky
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Government Conspiracy?
Yesterday I spent 9 hours lecturing on alcohol physiology and the question that I am constantly posed came up yet again.
Why is alcohol legal and drugs aren't? is it because the taxman makes so much money out of booze?
So today I thought I would address this.
1. The alcohol industry has powerful a powerful lobby of that there is no doubt
2. Governments bring in billions of pounds from various forms of taxation on the alcohol industry
3. The illegal use of drugs and the supply of those drugs is comparable with prohibition of alcohol in the 1920's and 30's.
The major challenge facing the ordinary person on the street who enjoys a pint of beer or glass of wine is that they have no real information about how things work or what they do. There is a total dichotomous arguement that rages between the alcohol industry and the abolitionists and this is unlikely to go away in the near future because of the symbiotic relationship the two groups have.
Is alcohol totally bad for you? Honestly no it is not. A small amount as part of a good diet may actually be beneficial.
Is alcohol when consumed in quantity and quickly bad for you? Absolutely, binge drinking is a highly damaging way of consuming alcohol.
Is this arguement ever discussed? No. Why? Well because that would be both sides admitting their flaws. What we need is real unbiased information disseminated in an easy to understand way for the ordinary person in the street to be able to digest.
We have long talked about the use of illegal drugs in this country. And the discussion is justified on the harm that drugs cause to individuals. The irony is that many of these drugs are prescribed regualrly by medics every day in the NHS where they can cause an equal amount of damage but that is acceptable because your doctor prescribed it.
The real issue with drugs is of course addiction however that addiction instead of being dealt with openly in our society it is somehow driven underground into a seedy world that leads to crime and deprevation. The Mafia only really became the organisation it did because of prohibition in the USA, the drug cartels and gangs have got their hold because drug taking, which is as old as alcohol consumption, has been driven underground. We somehow frown upon those who have issues with narcotics but accept those that have issues with alcohol.
Is it all about money and power? Well the conspiracy theorists will have you believe this however the reality is that it is all about the oldest economic arguement in the world. The law of supply and demand.
So should Governments take a positive role in this? Absolutely they should be proactive and transparent. Unfortunately that is not the case and that is why the question that I get asked on a regular basis will continue to be asked until the elected representatives have the courage to stand up and say things can be different.
Why is alcohol legal and drugs aren't? is it because the taxman makes so much money out of booze?
So today I thought I would address this.
1. The alcohol industry has powerful a powerful lobby of that there is no doubt
2. Governments bring in billions of pounds from various forms of taxation on the alcohol industry
3. The illegal use of drugs and the supply of those drugs is comparable with prohibition of alcohol in the 1920's and 30's.
The major challenge facing the ordinary person on the street who enjoys a pint of beer or glass of wine is that they have no real information about how things work or what they do. There is a total dichotomous arguement that rages between the alcohol industry and the abolitionists and this is unlikely to go away in the near future because of the symbiotic relationship the two groups have.
Is alcohol totally bad for you? Honestly no it is not. A small amount as part of a good diet may actually be beneficial.
Is alcohol when consumed in quantity and quickly bad for you? Absolutely, binge drinking is a highly damaging way of consuming alcohol.
Is this arguement ever discussed? No. Why? Well because that would be both sides admitting their flaws. What we need is real unbiased information disseminated in an easy to understand way for the ordinary person in the street to be able to digest.
We have long talked about the use of illegal drugs in this country. And the discussion is justified on the harm that drugs cause to individuals. The irony is that many of these drugs are prescribed regualrly by medics every day in the NHS where they can cause an equal amount of damage but that is acceptable because your doctor prescribed it.
The real issue with drugs is of course addiction however that addiction instead of being dealt with openly in our society it is somehow driven underground into a seedy world that leads to crime and deprevation. The Mafia only really became the organisation it did because of prohibition in the USA, the drug cartels and gangs have got their hold because drug taking, which is as old as alcohol consumption, has been driven underground. We somehow frown upon those who have issues with narcotics but accept those that have issues with alcohol.
Is it all about money and power? Well the conspiracy theorists will have you believe this however the reality is that it is all about the oldest economic arguement in the world. The law of supply and demand.
So should Governments take a positive role in this? Absolutely they should be proactive and transparent. Unfortunately that is not the case and that is why the question that I get asked on a regular basis will continue to be asked until the elected representatives have the courage to stand up and say things can be different.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Drinking and Driving Solutions
Recently as a result of the North Report 2 (The Revisited) the UK Government outlined it's plans on how to continue the fight against Drinking and Driving.
Some of the measures are welcomed however this must not become a money making, sound bite or lip service to the press exercise.
I have worked with in excess of 18000 convicted Drink Drivers in the UK alone and as such have a unique insight as to why people commit this crime and what we as a society can do about it. The UK Government's response will not stop Drink Driving and will fail to have serious impact on what is fundamentally a disease of sociability.
The Government's insistence that bringing in hand held portable evidential intoximeters and removing blood testing for those who are in a certain banding is without a doubt one of the most ridiculous things in the proposals. Why? Well the intoximeters work on the presumption that there is a defined ratio between blood and breath alcohol concentrations and as such as the majority of people will follow this situation then there can be little error in the intoximeter. This is nonsense and however much the UK Government wish to spin this the reality of the situation is that human beings are different and do not fit into robotic metronomic patterns as far as the physiology of alcohol is concerned.
As a result of this treating everyone the same will ultimately lead to legal challenges that cost time money and effort. Much better to get it right in the first place and develop a system for evidential blood testing that could be a simple and accurate as the testing of blood sugar concentration used by millions of diabetics worldwide.
Secondly the UK Government plans a relaunch of the Drink Driver Rehabilitation Programme.
My question about this is simple. Why wait until after the fact? Why not educate immediately. Take away the old wives tales such as 2 pints and you're ok to drive.
It is far more sensible to prevent than to cure.
If the UK Government is serious about stopping Drinking and Driving within the UK then they need to speak to the people who actually know something about the subject. And much as I respect Sir Peter North he is unfortunately another academic sat in another ivory tower.
Some of the measures are welcomed however this must not become a money making, sound bite or lip service to the press exercise.
I have worked with in excess of 18000 convicted Drink Drivers in the UK alone and as such have a unique insight as to why people commit this crime and what we as a society can do about it. The UK Government's response will not stop Drink Driving and will fail to have serious impact on what is fundamentally a disease of sociability.
The Government's insistence that bringing in hand held portable evidential intoximeters and removing blood testing for those who are in a certain banding is without a doubt one of the most ridiculous things in the proposals. Why? Well the intoximeters work on the presumption that there is a defined ratio between blood and breath alcohol concentrations and as such as the majority of people will follow this situation then there can be little error in the intoximeter. This is nonsense and however much the UK Government wish to spin this the reality of the situation is that human beings are different and do not fit into robotic metronomic patterns as far as the physiology of alcohol is concerned.
As a result of this treating everyone the same will ultimately lead to legal challenges that cost time money and effort. Much better to get it right in the first place and develop a system for evidential blood testing that could be a simple and accurate as the testing of blood sugar concentration used by millions of diabetics worldwide.
Secondly the UK Government plans a relaunch of the Drink Driver Rehabilitation Programme.
My question about this is simple. Why wait until after the fact? Why not educate immediately. Take away the old wives tales such as 2 pints and you're ok to drive.
It is far more sensible to prevent than to cure.
If the UK Government is serious about stopping Drinking and Driving within the UK then they need to speak to the people who actually know something about the subject. And much as I respect Sir Peter North he is unfortunately another academic sat in another ivory tower.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Continuing Debate
More debate has been brought forth in recent days over the idea of minimum pricing on super strength alcohol.
As wine now is so strong in the UK that an average bottle contains between 9 and 12 units this must also be a target surely.
Please don't anyone out there fool themselves it is not just the kids in the parks and the tramps in the underpass who are drinking to excess, it's pretty much anyone who enjoys a couple of glasses of a decent wine.
Let's get this debate moving folks
As wine now is so strong in the UK that an average bottle contains between 9 and 12 units this must also be a target surely.
Please don't anyone out there fool themselves it is not just the kids in the parks and the tramps in the underpass who are drinking to excess, it's pretty much anyone who enjoys a couple of glasses of a decent wine.
Let's get this debate moving folks
Friday, 2 October 2009
More stupidity
I see this week that there have been two major items of news with regards to alcohol.
1. A report backs the idea of minimum pricing per unit.
2. Gordon Brown is to give local authorities the power to prevent 24 hour licences.
Firstly the idea of minimum pricing is to prevent alcoholics and those with serious alcohol issues from obtaining strong drink. Put simply people in this situation will find the alcohol and the money for it regardless of the cost. It will however increase levels of petty crime and or indebtedness within that particular group of individuals.
Secondly local authorities are often dominated by councillors who have a NIMBY attitude and have no understanding of the nature of this subject. There is little or no education within the authority and even less n the community. Simply using archaic powers will only drive the problems underground.
1. A report backs the idea of minimum pricing per unit.
2. Gordon Brown is to give local authorities the power to prevent 24 hour licences.
Firstly the idea of minimum pricing is to prevent alcoholics and those with serious alcohol issues from obtaining strong drink. Put simply people in this situation will find the alcohol and the money for it regardless of the cost. It will however increase levels of petty crime and or indebtedness within that particular group of individuals.
Secondly local authorities are often dominated by councillors who have a NIMBY attitude and have no understanding of the nature of this subject. There is little or no education within the authority and even less n the community. Simply using archaic powers will only drive the problems underground.
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