Britons like getting drunk says Minister

London, Jan 1: Attempts to wean Britons away from binge drinking towards a more continental European ''cafe style'' culture may never work because too many like getting drunk, a cabinet minister said.

''I don't know whether we'll ever get to be in a European drinking culture, where you go out and have a single glass of wine,'' Labour Party chair Hazel Blears said.

''Maybe its our Anglo-Saxon mentality. We actually enjoy getting drunk,'' she told the Sunday Times newspaper in an interview.

Britain introduced extended drinking hours last November in a bid to tackle the country's binge drinking problem where people consumed large amounts of alcohol in a short space of time.

Proponents of the changes to the licensing laws had argued it would usher in more civilised drinking habits like those of France or Spain.

But as pubs and clubs prepare for the second New Year's Eve under the new laws, there has been little sign that people are drinking more responsibly.

Blears said the continued binge drinking culture was worrying.

''People are getting quite serious health conditions earlier -- things like liver problems in their twenties and thirties that perhaps before only came out in their forties and fifties.'' Blears, a former junior Home Office minister responsible for tackling problem drinking, told the newspaper more needed to be done to educate people about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

In May a survey by University College London found that Britain had the worst problem with anti-social behaviour in Europe, often fuelled by alcohol. London's Ambulance Service said it had noted a 3 per cent rise in call-outs to drink-related medical incidents.

In addition the number of middle-aged men drinking themselves to death has more than doubled since 1991. Men aged between 35 and 54 have suffered the biggest rise in alcohol-related deaths, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Deaths among women in the same age group also nearly doubled and health service figures show the number of children admitted to hospital because of alcohol had jumped over 20 percent in five years.

REUTERS >