Naive Knee Jerking Nonsense....

Is a the most apt phrase I can think to describe the recent outpourings of Cheshire's Police Constable, Peter Fahy. Why? Well let us look at his comments (taken from here):

(These comments were made to Channel 4 News, as part of a piece on the charging of three teenagers for the murder of a 47 year old).

Mr Fahy called for the legal drinking age to be raised from 18 to 21.

"Alcohol is too cheap and too readily available and is too strong. Young people cannot handle it," he added.

Firstly, if someone under age is going drink alcohol, does it matter then what that minimum age is - they are still going to drink. This is about education and respect for the law, just raising the age will increase under age drinking, apart from in those responsible 19 year old's who will follow the law. As with most laws, they are only followed by the responsible. So no, raising the age would not stop the problem, indeed it would only increase it.

Is Alcohol too cheap? Well maybe in the big supermarkets (and one or two smaller ones), plus in certain high street chain pubs (you can I am sure work out who). So yes raise the tax on alcohol, double it's price. But hang on, that would hit the pockets of the responsible drinkers, so they would cut back. Responsible pubs would shut, small breweries/wineries/distilleries etc would lose their outlets and then they would shut. What production that is left would be in the hands of big producers - you know, the ones that can cut their production costs and produce cheap alcohol. Meanwhile, the only drinkers unaffected would be those with a lot of disposable income. Which, funnily enough, includes the idiots Mr Fahy is trying to control. So once again, only the well behaved are affected.

Is alcohol too strong? And can young people handle it? Well I can't speak for wine or spirits, but it is historical fact that beer and cider have reduced in strength over the years, partly through cost saving by producers (less alcohol means more output in very simple terms), but mostly through taxation of beer & cider being based on alcoholic strength (less alcohol = less tax to pay). So historically you would that alcohol related 'crime' would be reducing as well. Over the last 50 years the evidence would suggest otherwise. Indeed over the same 50 years alcohol consumption has fallen dramatically, which would suggest that maybe there are factors alongside alcohol in these crimes. As for young people handling alcohol, well yes they can, if they are used to it. Wine is commonly drunk by young children in France (in small, watered down amounts), and elsewhere in the world. In the UK alcohol is demonised by the media and the authorities, which seems to only increase the enthusiasm of the young to try it asap. When they do, unlike the kids of France, it is behind closed doors, without adult supervision. Could this be a factor here? More importantly, the quantity of alcohol consumed by the irresponsible young would floor anyone. So it's not a question of not handling it, is a question of not drinking so much in the first place - and stopping demonising alcohol may well go some way to reducing it's apparent charm.


Everyday, large numbers of people enjoy alcohol in all its forms without feeling the need to put in windows, murder folk, fight in the street or rob old ladies. Much as they don't have those urges when sober. Why? Because they know it's wrong to do those things, morally first and legally second. These are the folk that suffer from these knee jerk remarks and the resulting actions. The people who know how to behave in the first place. And I bet many of these responsible people also had a drink long before they turned 18.

So Mr Fahy, here are some ideas from the real world:

1. Stop this knee-jerk stuff, it helps no-one but the Daily Mail doom merchants.
2. Arrest people, build bigger cells, and put your efforts into arranging a court system that doesn't let everyone off all the time - punishment should scare people, not pamper them.
3. Ask yourself why a minority of young people feel the need to get drunk all the time. If you just stop them getting drunk, they'll fill that hole with worse substances. Sort out the illness, not the symptoms.
4. Sure, focus your anti-alcohol feelings on those who put out cheap drink - but remember that not all outlets sell cheap drink. So raising tax won't work.
5. Have a look at work these hooligans are drinking. It might surprise you. And you might even realise that in fact, most producers and suppliers of drink don't actually benefit from the hooligan bingers, indeed their antics probably scare away potential trade.
6. No, alcohol is not exactly a healthy option, even in moderation, but for the majority it is nor more a source of harm than fast food - it is treated sensibly. So don't penalise the sensible majority.
7. Don't start to attack the industry. We are not breaking the law - if folk behave irresponsibly it is NOT our fault, anymore that Ford is responsible for killer drivers, or that rope makers are responsible for folk who hang themselves. Or maybe we all should be - indeed why not extend this thought and make the police responsible for all the crimes they don't stop. We all have a social responsibility, but lines have to be drawn. And individuals have to responsible for what they do, not pass it on to others.


I accept that the media may twist your words, and maybe your comments have been shown out of context - but you should be aware of that before your speak. So less knee jerk, and more targeted, well thought action. We all want these incidents stopped, as much we all want to be able to continue our own morally responsible lives without paying for the antics of the minority. Please, drop the soundbites - they help only to promote the speaker, and demonise young people (the majority of whom are decent folk). Also, they needlessly increase fear -unless of course you are suggesting that the streets are now an out of control lawless area...?

Back With A, Err, Ermm, Well, Errr, Something Mildy Interesting. Probably....

Ooh, would you look at that. It's been a month since the last blog, or whatever it's called. And I'm still not sure what to post.

I could say the previously discussed Hobby we have sighted may have been a juvenile Peregrine, according to some observers. I could mention a couple of new beers we have put out - 'Western Harrier', 'Blink Bonny' & the originally titled 'Dark' (hang on, that's three isn't it - sorry). I could even talk at length about various insects observed by the pond. But to be honest, I won't.

What I will say is that we now have the casks to sustain a more regular and intensive brewing schedule, which is keeping us busy, and as a result, and not before time, we are now three. We have been joined by our first employee, Basil. Basil has brewing experience, and is also a fully qualified herbalist - which I suspect may be another unique point in our favour. So I really must get about updating, nay including, a section on the website about the faces behind the beer. It may even make interesting reading...

Since the last post, a few more areas of the country have been flooded, although thankfully for us not round here (it remains to be seen what effects there will be on the hop & barley harvest, but fingers crossed all will be OK). But summer seems to be with us at the moment, and beer sales are for us still on an upwards trend. It seems to be the same for many of the other breweries we have contact with, despite some very downbeat feelings from publicans. The truth I guess is that many smokers are still spending less time drinking, which is affecting pub figures. Statistically though, smokers are more likely (so we are told) to be lager drinkers, so cask sales haven't been hit too hard - indeed it seems that what new trade there is in pubs is mostly folks who have a taste for 'bitters', and are keener to try something new. Again, this is good news for the small producers, and bad news for the big, over-hyped mass produced 'brands'. Which might explain why, as ever, small brewers are always 'bucking the trend' of national sales figures (small brewers sales aren't included in industry statistics...).

The downside of increasing sales is of course that in the short term the cash flow gets screwed up a bit, but hey-ho, this is part of business life. Of course it does hurt to see the cheques to the revenue increasing massively, but that is just relative - it's all based on money coming in, so in many ways it is a good sign.

The current bit of good news is that we have had a meeting with the local licencing officer, and any fears re high costs of getting a full alcohol/entertainment licence are seemingly unfounded. So a couple of hours of form filling (umpteen copies of which are to be sent to the world, his dog, and the dog's two mates), and 28 days of notices & adverts later, we might at last be able to sell to the public from the brewery door. All of which we were allowed to do under the old licencing rules...

One of the main concerns of the licence application revolves around protecting society from the harms of alcohol, and how we plan to do this. Well, it's simple really. For a start we won't be selling anything at a ridiculously low below cost price, and therefore encouraging folk to get cheaply drunk before going out. What's that, someone suggesting large supermarket chains are behaving irresponsibly, with impunity? Surely not. Whatever next...