Is this the end for the pint glass?

August 24, 2009: The Home Office is investigating safer alternatives to the traditional pint beer glass, it has emerged today.

A team of designers has been tasked with finding a drinking vessel that will cut down the 87,000 injuries said to be caused each year by the current glasses.

Any change will be fiercely resisted by British beer drinkers because only glass is thought to not taint the taste of the beer inside. Plastic glasses of various kinds have been experimented with before, but even the most robust have not proved as popular as glass, not indeed as long-lasting, being particularly prone to scratching.

The Home Office, however, sees the exercise as a way of helping to reduce alcohol-related crime figures.