If there are any neighborhood  pubs—the real thing—left in Great Britain, they must be doomed now.

Certainly ordinary bars have their troubles.

In America, binge drinking tends to be private or on campuses, often with tragic results.

In Britain, the whole country has been lapping up all-you-can-drink deals, this NPR story says.

NPR also says that health experts disagree with the outlawing excess consumption approach, saying only higher prices for alcohol will cut back on drinking games and dangerous levels of alcohol consumption.

And all along, we thought our British cousins were so terribly civilized.

NPR

“Bar-going Britons may soon be bidding goodbye to their country’s all-you-can-drink deals — as well as some of their more outlandish drinking games.

“The government said Tuesday it was banning irresponsible promotions and boozy contests such as the “dentist’s chair” — where alcohol is poured directly into customers’ mouths — in an effort to tackle Britain’s binge-drinking problem.

“The government says the ban will limit binge-drinking, but health experts say the nation’s deepening alcohol problem would best be tackled by imposing higher minimum prices on Britain’s cheap booze.

“The raft of new measures is “better than nothing,” according to Carys Davis, spokeswoman for Britain’s Alcohol Concern charity. But she said the restrictions “seem tame” compared to what the government could do by ending pricing practices that result in alcohol selling for less than water.” (Emphasis added)

Source: NPR, January 19, 2010