Gemma Fraser: Learning the lessons

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 09:45

IT is traditionally one of the most drunken, raucous weeks any young person leaving home for the first time could hope for.

The words 'freshers' week' conjure up images of elaborate drinking games and pound-a-pint promotions, designed to give students a grounding in how to live the next few years of their lives.

But this year the revelries look set to be more subdued than in the past, as the Scottish Government's crackdown on binge drinking outlaws the "happy hours" and "two-for-one" deals which usually flood the Southside, Cowgate and Grassmarket at this time of year.

Some bars are offering free food – while others elsewhere in the country are staging "happy weeks" to get round the new law's insistence that drink prices must be fixed for at least 72 hours – in order to entice students legally. For the most part, though, pubs across the city are being forced to embrace this new approach to sensible drinking.

Will all these new rules – which also ban pubs putting up free drinks as quiz prizes and offering punters the "same again" – succeed in changing the drinking habits of generations?

While for most bars this approach is a novelty, it is nothing new to the bars at the very heart of the city's student life, in Edinburgh University's student unions.

They have for several years being pioneering rules which detractors would call draconian, but supporters say encourage a sensible approach to drinking. Some age-old student pastimes have been banned in recent years, including drinking games in which the losers pay their penalties by consuming more alcohol, and "dirty pints" – beer with spirits mixed in.

The university's student association has also fixed drink prices at the same rate – a very competitive 1.80 for a pint or spirit with a mixer – whatever the time of day, week or year, meaning no "happy hours". Staff are also trained to answer instantly any questions about units of alcohol in various drinks.

Traditional freshers' week pub crawls and booze-fests have even been replaced with drink-free alternatives such as coffee house crawls and hang-gliding taster sessions. The approach has earned the students' unions national recognition in the Best Bar None awards for promoting sensible drinking.

The result has been a definite drop in the most extreme drink-related bad behaviour, according to Chris Beddows, central area bars manager at Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA).

"We certainly see less of this because we don't allow it to happen. If we do see it, we put a stop to it," he says.

"Our staff and security will talk to people who look like they're drinking too much and tell them to take it easy. The message is really getting out there.

"We have been sensible for a long time now and we like to think we have very safe venues and maybe that's a result of what we've been doing."

Chris acknowledges, though, that the general improvement in behaviour has perhaps been forced on the most raucous – rather than them buying in to the sensible drinking message – and that this is perhaps easier to do in a student bar than on the high street.

"Everybody else is going to have to play ball for it (the new licensing legislation] to work," he says.

Thomas Graham, president of EUSA, adds: "We have isolated incidents of trouble, but every organisation does. I would expect we see much less in the way of problems from people drinking than other bars.

"That's a result of our responsible drinking policy because when people are too drunk, we just don't sell them any more drinks.

"The Scottish Government's policy may have a positive effect like ours has, but the key thing is getting people behind the concept. The changes we have made over the past two years have made people feel like they know they are coming to a safe bar."

The most significant endorsement for the students' approach perhaps comes, though, from their neighbours.

Their rowdiness and high jinks have traditionally been a bone of contention with the permanent residents of areas like the Southside.

However, Colin Christison, secretary of the Southside Community Council, says that in the nine years he has been involved with local affairs, students have not posed any major issues.

He believes the student unions' attempts at clamping down on the worst excesses of Scotland's binge-drinking culture may be a significant factor.

"During freshers' week, there's obviously the novelty of it all and you do get high spirits and rowdiness and parties, but they do settle down fairly quickly," he says.

"I'm aware that the university does try to keep control of things and that's definitely very positive.

"Students do get a bad name, but more often than not, it's not them to blame."