Dr Murray Simpson: Town centres key to binge drink battle

AS THE Scottish Government continues to try to press forward with its policies on price-control aimed at changing drinking behaviour in Scotland, one issue is curiously absent: what kind of culture is it that we actually want?

The key plank of the government's strategy is price control; a strategy aimed at reducing overall levels of alcohol consumption, particularly among heavier drinkers. While there is plenty of evidence to suggest that such policies do produce the desired results, we wonder whether the objectives are both too fragile and too limited.

They are fragile because of their permanent susceptibility to change in disposable income (people will still drink heavily if they can afford to do so), future governments' policies and a failure to fundamentally change what people want to do. More significantly, they are too limited in that they are not linked to any clear vision about what we want our culture and social spaces transformed into.

Have we really no more hopes and plans for our town centres at the weekends than that exactly the same people who currently use them will continue to do so, only they will drink less? This seems a very impoverished outlook.

Only the kind of culture change involved in realising a new vision for shared public places will effect a long-lasting, deep change in drinking behaviour.

One only has to consider the fact that Scotland's high incidence of binge drinking has its roots in the harsh conditions of the industrial working class in the 19th century. Even though the social circumstances have radically changed, the cultural behaviour has persisted.

Consider also the mythology that has grown up around the drinking debate. There is a prevalent view that binge drinking is somehow "anti-social". Whatever else it might be, public binge drinking is clearly a thoroughly social activity. The sense of being together and belonging is fundamental to it. We need a more nuanced understanding of the problem.

The trend towards home-based living, principally oriented around the television, the abandonment of the town centres, and the shift of other forms of leisure and entertainment outwards from city centres have produced greater atomisation of individuals and families. The irony is that those not engaged in heavy drinking in town centre pubs and nightclubs are actually less likely to be participating in social activities than those who are.

Merely reducing levels of alcohol consumption for binge drinkers is only half the picture. The Scottish Government needs to begin to change the behaviour of other sections of society, encouraging them to become more social and enhancing their use of town centres in the evenings.

The perception that town centres are exclusion zones and no-go areas for families and people simply wishing to have a quiet night out needs to be turned around. Though these groups may not be an obvious part of the problem, they must be a key part of the solution.

If the Scottish Government is serious about tackling Scotland's drinking problems, it is imperative that it recognises that the cultural context of alcohol consumption can never be under-estimated. While changing culture may be the policy equivalent of turning an oil tanker, it is the only way of producing lasting fundamental change. We need to understand what it is that gives binge drinking meaning and importance in Scottish society instead of treating it simply as if it were a bad but ingrained habit.

For that reason, efforts to change drinking patterns must also be linked to a wider national strategy that redefines and reclaims social spaces for our communities. Town centres on Friday and Saturday nights should be places that cater for more than just teenage and twenty-something drinkers. They should be more welcoming towards other social groups, including families and older people.

At present, policies on alcohol are replete with statements about what needs to be eliminated and how to go about it. What they currently lack is any vision of what we as a society wish to create for ourselves. While efforts to improve our health and reduce problematic drinking are laudable, we need to be more creative. In isolation, they will surely fail.

If we don't wish to see stuporous, violent and risky behaviour on the streets of our towns and cities at nights, then we need to start asking ourselves what it is we do want to see there.

• Dr Murray Simpson is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Dundee and a Member of the Board of Directors of Tayside Council on Alcohol. Julie A Bell is a complementary therapist and Chair of Tayside Council on Alcohol. Their views do not necessarily represent those of the University of Dundee or Tayside Council on Alcohol.