Sign Harpers' No 10 petition

Written by Claire Weekes

Monday, 27 October 2008

Harpers has put up a petition on the No 10 Downing Street website calling on members of the public to lobby the Prime Minister over any potential drinks legislation.

The petition reads: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to tackle the problem of excessive drinking in the UK and not punish the majority who drink responsibly.

It goes on to "urge the Prime Minister to recognise drinking patterns in the UK are in decline" and then lists the key drinking facts outlined in our recent open letter to MPs.

This includes the fact average alcohol consumption in the UK has been falling since 2003; the numbers drinking over the recommended weekly guidelines fell between 2000 and 2006; underage drinking is down from 26% of 11-15 year olds in 2001 to 21% in 2006; the numbers of 11-15 year olds who have never drunk alcohol are increasing from 40% in
2000 to 46% in 2006.

The petition also highlights the number of people reporting binge drinking on at least one day in the previous week is down; and the laws we have to tackle alcohol misuse are not being enforced, with two people having been prosecuted and one found guilty of selling alcohol to a drunken person since the 2003 Licensing Act.

Sign the petition at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/alcoholfacts.

This article has been taken from this week's issue of Harpers magazine, which is available by subscription only. To subsribe to Harpers, please click here.

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