There has been yet more things in the media and on the news in the past week about alcohol and how its wiping out the planet, killing everyone who comes into contact with it like its anthrax. Newcastle City Council are doing their “we’re doing something about it” part, by slamming the promotion that The Attic or “people at the Attic” decided to run.

The Attic decided to house a “lets all get drunk” style of night, called Trashed which was supposed to run every Tuesday. However The Council have now decided that this is far too extreme, calling a night trashed and advertising it with statements such as “If you are sober enough to drive home at 3am we’ll give you your entry fee back”. The night got cancelled.

There is some group of losers called “Balance” who are the first alcohol agency aka the “we dont want you to have a good time” brigade. Their director, Colin Shevills said something interesting which was:

“This is one of the most outrageous and irresponsible drinks promotion offers I have ever witnessed. “Two things worry me about it: the alcohol is so cheap and it makes it seem totally harmless, which it is not.
“The thing that is new to me is that it seems to be rewarding people who get the most drunk.”

OK MR Shevills, i ask you, have you EVER had a night out in Newcastle? I dont think so. If you have, then you will find that MANY of the bars offer drinks promotions, free shots on entry, buy x and get y free, the list is endless. So why has this been singled out? Is it the name, Trashed? Maybe.

OK, so the bar should probably not encourage binge drinking, that is fair enough. But why do these people not understand you have to be an adult to buy alcohol, and if i want to drink myself into oblivion then i will. If i want to have a pint then i will do that. I am an adult and i will choose what i drink and how much i will drink. If people want to drink lots then they will, regardless of things such as price. If for example a bottle of alcopop goes from £3.50 a bottle to £10 (lets exaggerate a bit) people will move onto something else like vodka, because you get more drunk on that. If people want to get drunk for the sake of it then they will simply buy whatever happens to be the cheapest form of alcohol. You cannot price everyone out of it, because bars would loose money and most would have to close.

The promotion just highlighted that it wanted you to get drunk, in reality all the bars want you to be drunk, because being drunk means you are spending money. So why dont the Council remove all the licences for the bars which run any kind of promotion, then we will have literally a handfull of bars, which means Newcastle, “A great night out” will have lots and lots of empty buildings and look terrible. Does this mean that ‘all you can eat’ places and things of that nature should be closed down, because that encourages obesity? Kiss goodbye to the Tourism/student money Council people

Newcastle nightlife is for people who want to have a good time. We do not need a bunch of suit wearing morons to tell us how to have a night, espeically when they clearly do not have a clue what is going on. Seriously, get with the program.