Thanks to Claudio Piombetti, Stanwell, England

To the London Guardian: Thanks for Noticing, and the Complimentary Remarks!!!!!!
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MY NAME IS BRITAIN, AND I HAVE A DRINK PROBLEM

The mixed-up licensing bill won't help this country kick its alcohol habit

London Guardian
Martin Kettle
Saturday May 31, 2003

...AC Milan and Juventus played out a dull goalless draw over two hours in Manchester on Wednesday evening (Europe Soccer Championship), before Milan won the penalty shootout. So far, so predictable. But the interesting thing is that not a lot happened off the field either.

Fully 50,000 Italian football supporters made the journey to Manchester this week. They came from two proud rival cities, with honour, glory and passion at stake. It was an explosive mix. Yet when it was all over and the Italians had gone home, Greater Manchester police had recorded not a single incident (and, no, before you say it, they weren't talking about the game) and had made a total of zero arrests.

The visitors were a credit to their country, a police spokesman purred.

Imagine if the roles had been reversed. Suppose Manchester United had been playing Leeds United in a final held in Milan (go on, let me dream). Can anyone imagine the Milan police keeping a clean sheet with 50,000 English fans on foreign soil, the way the Manchester police did with the Italians? A credit to their country? No, I don't think so either.

So what's the difference? How is it that Italians know how to behave properly in public and we don't? The difference is simple. They don't have an alcohol problem. We do.

If you look at the figures, you will find that the average Italian and the average Briton drinks more or less the same amount of alcohol per head each year - the equivalent of about eight litres of pure alcohol.

But that's where the cultures diverge. Italians spread their drinking out. Notoriously, we concentrate ours. And Italy's alcohol consumption is dropping, in line with the pattern in the majority of countries in Europe. In Britain, we are in the minority of countries where alcohol consumption is rising...

Put another way, it is the delusion that an act of parliament can make us behave like Italians...

....We dream of a drinking culture like that of Italy, but the nightmare is that unless we think again, we will become a drinking culture like the one Ireland is now struggling to curtail....

Complete article available at.....
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | My name is Britain, and I have a drink problem
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,967619,00.html