Cafe society? Try Gin Lane meets Casualty

Let us hope that, like a pantomime drunk, we are pushing at a wide-open door in calling for swift action by government on the damning report from MPs on drink-related civil disturbance. Alcohol abuse now ranks with knife and gun violence as top of the crime and crime-prevention problems facing today's police, absorbing enormous numbers of officers at peak trouble times and costing the country's police forces around £7bn a year.

You were probably not surprised. You are lucky if you do not regularly see and hear the evidence in cities and towns around Britain: for too many of us, no evening out is without its detours to avoid noise, violence, pools of vomit and tragic teenage dramas. Nor should the government be surprised to learn of the alarming consequences of its 2003 Licensing Act. Long before it was enacted in 2005, allowing pubs and bars to apply for extended hours (up to 24) and for supermarkets to sell alcohol around the clock, they had been warned of the likely dangers by judges ("an inevitable explosion in alcohol-fuelled violence"), the police, who in some areas vigorously opposed every application for extension, and from health lobbies.

Labour's stated ambition to create a relaxed wine-drinking European "cafe culture" within a Nordic drink-till-you-drop tradition was from the outset either stupid or cynical. No pub was going to bear the costs of staying open for slow sippers of wine unless it radically increased the amount of alcohol it sold. The act was a triumph for the lobbying skills of the drinks industry. That is not to say the move did not have the support of voters. In the days preceding the 2001 election, Labour felt it could increase its chances of being elected when it texted young adults with the bribe: "Cldnt give a xxxx 4 last ordrs? Thn vte Lbr on thrsday 4 xtra time."

It is not for governments to moralise about how we live our lives (or choose our deaths). Nor should we stigmatise young people who merely act out more publicly a national habit that is rapidly getting out of control. Britain has a drink problem. Against the European trend, consumption per capita is increasing, taking a terrible toll on the nation's health. Deaths from alcohol-related diseases doubled in the 15 years to 2006. Labour did not create the problem but it has failed to recognise that making alcohol cheaply and easily available would exacerbate a lamentable trend.

The Home Office has said it is keen to "tackle the issues head on". It is fair to ask: "What took so long?"

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