Reporter Elle Hunt - me neither - is all in favour of it, so that's good at least. In what would best be described as a puff piece, she quotes as follows: "Researchers from the behaviour and health research unit at the University of Cambridge have recommended that the traditional British pint be abandoned in favour of the two-thirds measure.
After a trial in a dozen pubs, bars and restaurants in England, the study leader, Prof Theresa Marteau, concluded that the change – which led to nearly 10% less beer being sold and consumed – could reduce the impact of alcohol-related harm."I’m entirely in favour of the idea", says Elle, so we really should take a bit of notice, shouldn't we? Well, no.
The Prof quoted is worried about heath. We drink too much don't we, so forcing us into drinking in smaller glasses would decrease beer sales, by 10%. Well with 50 pubs a month closing, that would certainly speed things up if that's your aim. The likely outcome wouldn't be good for the consumer either, It is likely, nay certain, that the outcome would be shrinkflation with the same being charged for less. And of course, home drinking, where most of the real harm occurs, would not be affected. Didn't spot that one Prof? We'll come back to you later.
However, Elle, isn't worried about that. She lists her reasons for disliking the pint. This is now serious stuff. It is too big; it is unwieldy; you get bloated; the beer gets too warm before you get it down your neck; one intended pint usually end up being two, forcing you to drink over a litre of beer. How awful. This is compounded by this fatuous remark "Really, when you think about it, 568ml is an obscene amount of liquid to
consume in one sitting – and 1,136ml even more so. It probably wouldn’t
occur to you to drink more than half a litre of coffee, or milkshake,
or kombucha at a time. So why is it the norm, in Britain, with beer –
and despite the known harms?" So there you have it. Obscene to drink over a litre of beer.
Elle tells us - she's Australian it seems - that in Sydney the schooner (not the same as two thirds actually) is the norm and is widely accepted. I've got news for her. The pint, from my recent experience, is widely accepted too. In fact, in all the pubs around the harbour area, it was standard, though schooners were available. It was pretty much the same everywhere and though it varied from state to state, I don't recall many occasions where it wasn't available.
If the argument is that two thirds measures should additionally be available, I wouldn't have much of an issue. Here in the UK, two thirds measures are pretty much confined to the craft beer sector, where strength is more likely to be higher. Normal pubs - and I use the word as a delineator, simply have no call for them, and it can also be argued that two thirds is a good way of disguising cost.
I've not forgotten the Prof whose team determined that if you give smaller measures that you sell less beer. (I think even the most casual primary school student of arithmetic could work that out.) Most beer in pubs though is used as an agreeable social lubricant, rather than something to get trashed on. If that's your aim, there are cheaper and quicker ways of doing so, rather than expensively necking pints of (mostly) weak beer. But the danger in all this nonsense is that it deflects from dealing with the real issues of alcohol abuse, which is, for those affected, absolutely dreadful.
Funnily enough, this daft piece has attracted much radio and other media attention. I have seen little support from subsequent public comments, though there have been some silly comparisons (small glasses in Düsseldorf for example) and many vacuous arguments, but such things are easy airtime, so we shouldn't be surprised.
This is a fatuous article. Clickbait more than anything. As Elle herself says, the pint has been around since 1698. I'm not for a second saying there isn't a problem, but is beer and the pint really the issue here? Let's just leave it alone and concentrate on tackling where real harm occurs, that is in unlicensed premises, like our homes and the social and political issues that surround alcohol abuse.
Oh, some stats about the UK and alcohol for perspective:
UK is 27th for beer consumption in the world, with 67 litres per head of population. Well behind the leader, the Czech Republic, with 188.5 litres.
We don't make the top 15 for alcohol consumption in the world and, though I couldn't find exactly where we rank, we would be 18th in the EU if we were still in it.
We are 69th in the world for deaths attributed to alcohol, with 1.76 per 100, 00. (Germany is 25th with 4.32.)
Update: A more serious piece was published in the Guardian here today. It covers much of the ground I have covered, and features sensible stuff by Roger Protz and Pete Brown, but I've written this now, so here it is.
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2 comments:
Great to have you blogging again, Peter, a beacon of common sense in a clickbait world. Who buys newspapers these days ?
A classic case of "I don't like it, so nobody else should be allowed to have it either." And, of course, 2/3 pint measures have been legal since about 2011, although, as you say, the takeup has been very limited, and has tended to be confined to craft bars trying to obfuscate the price/volume relationship.
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