Do you think the drinking-age should be raised to 21 in the UK?

Question

I don't.

It's a load of bollocks.
Eighteen *is* the age, not twenty one.
And it's not going to help youngsters stop drinking anyway.

All I can say, is that, if they do put it up to twenty one, they can put porn up to 21 too, and crap like that.

Why is it twenty one in the USA anyway?

A girl on the bus told me that it was being raised to 21 in the UK next year. She's a cleff. It's not going to be raised ...

IT'S NOT.

Yes, BabyF, but that can happen at ANY age, not just when you're under twenty one.

Every woman is vunerable when she's drunk, whatever ever age she may be.

Shut the hell up Tob. Spell properly you moo.

ViVi, society is changing; it's changed alot in the last ten years, for the worse.

The police can't do **** anymore.

Exactly. You can never stop them from drinking, they'll get it either way.
Vodka is clear, so adults think they're drinking water.

In supermarkets, it's dirty cheap.

I didn't start drinking until I was almost eighteen.
Before then, I had never been drunk in my entire life. No joke.

I was a little angel. My parents should be proud.
Everyone else was drinking when they were fifteen, but I was reading a book at home instead ..

Answer 1

The girl on the bus is a misinformed buffoon. Take your news from more reliable sources in future.

The government has never mentioned changing the age to 21. It would be nice if they could, but it wouldn't work here.

Thumbs down all you want, but its a fact, there has been NO mention of raising the UK age to 21 for good reason. It isnt happening!

Answer 2

i'm not an anti-alcohole advocate as you put it , but i dont drink and i would like to see the laws changed , the drinking age should remain 18 , but for shops to sell alcohole , the age should be 21 , this way there will be no arguments over 16 & 17 year olds going in and buying it FYI i was a heavy drinker till my 23rd , i gave up drinking 21 years ago because i could see myself becomming dependant on alcohole . At the age of 16 , you can join the services , but you dont acctually get to see any action untill you are 18 . The first 2 years of service are spent on training

Answer 3

Having experiences in both countries, I prefer it 21. Obviously it doesn't stop people from drinking if they really want to, but it holds a lot of people off for a while.

The drinking culture is far more present in the UK than it is in the US. The average drinker here would be considered lame as hell in the UK, and the average drinker in the UK would be attending AA meetings here.

Whether that's because of the drinking age or not, I don't know, but it seems like a very bad idea to send someone away from home and give them the ability to buy alcohol all at the same time.

I also find it strange that while we wait until we're 21 to start drinking in the US, we normally stop going out by the time we're 24, where as people in the UK are still partying at 27 the same way they were at 18.

Answer 4

The age of majority was 21 in England up to 1970. Since then the govenment has been gradually lowering the age at which other things can be legal to bring them into line for equality purposes.
In America the age of majority is still 21 in most states I believe and their age laws for other things are tougher too.
You could say Britain rules the way.
I really couldn't imagine any scenario having comparatively recently legalised most things at age 18 that they would suddenly try to criminalise thousands of young people.
The girl on the bus has probably listned to a debate where some half baked idea were bandied about.
However it appears we do need much higher levels of education about the harm that binge drinking does to people - even young ones.

Answer 5

I am on your side. The drinking age in N.Y. was 18 when I was that age. It changed to 21 later, my younger Brother was actually aloud to drink one day and too young the next! Of course he drank when I was there...what good is a big bro if he can't buy his little brother a beer! The reason it is 21 for all of the U.S. is due mostly to M.A.D.D. and other lobbyists that pushed it through the states laws. It still makes no sense to me...you can be charged and sentenced as an adult at 18, serve and die in the military at 18, wed and produce children at 18, be sued at 18, and you can't have a beer....please!!!

Answer 6

What the bloody hell is a cleff?
Anyway, it's peoples own fault for not being sensible drinkers. Years ago, 18 year olds would go out for a few beers, without feeling the need to smash up a phone box or punch somebodies face in.
If people acted more responsibly when they were out drinking, maybe there wouldn't be a need to raise the drinking age.
But people don't drink responsibly anymore, so I think it should be raised, and we should go back to shutting the clubs earlier too.
I'm pissed off with having loads of drunken wankers down our street at six o'clock in the morning, because the clubs near me don't shut till 5am, it's ridiculous.

Answer 7

I would not see it solving the anti social behaviour issues the communities suffer already by raising it to 21 thought it may reduce the number of incidents we have to deal with, but the current age of 18 in my opinion is suitable.

The issue in my personal opinion lies in who is suppling the under 18s with alcohol, local corner stores make most of there profit by selling alchohol and tobacco as quite frankly we ain't going to do a full shop at there prices, so alot of owners will sell to under 18's to make money, we target these shops with fines and temporary licence bans but to fine them or have there licences removed we need the proof they are suppling minors and alot of the time the kids we seize alcohol from are not going to tell us where they got there drink from so we can cut there supplier off.

Adults are also to blame thinking its ok to buy the kids hanging outside of the stores alcohol when the kids ask them to do so for them.

Answer 8

I think they should raise the drinking age to 30. With the amount of drunk 20 *somethings* who wander about late in the evenings shouting, fighting, and throwing up all over the place. It's sad. :-/

Answer 9

No, at 18 people are mature enough to handle alcohol. People aged 21 make just as much of a prat of themselves and cause just as much a disturbance as 18 year olds do.

Answer 10

As there isn't an effective enforcement of 18 year olds how would increasing it to 21 work better? I've not heard about an increase anyway so I wouldn't worry about it.

Like many other laws they're pointless without effective enforcement.