MP suggests drinking licences for 18 year olds

September 17, 2007: A Labour MP has floated the idea of young people having a 'drinking licence' in order to tackle the problem of under-age consumption and make young legal drinkers more responsible.

Nick Palmer's idea is a response to the notions of raising the legal drinking age to 21, put forward recently by Cheshire Chief Constable David Fahy, and lowering it from 18 to 16, which has been suggested by a Conservative MP.

Mr Palmer argued that 16 would lead t 14- and 15-year-olds pretending to be 16 and simply introduce two years more of problem drinking. He said that while 21 had some merit and would probably reduce late-teen boozing considerably, virtually all people enjoyed some drink responsibly when they were 18 and it would be "oppressive to deny the pleasure to the entire age group just because some behave badly".

Hence, the idea of the drinking licence. "Everyone over 18 (or everyone between 18 and 21?) would have a card entitling them to buy alcohol," suggested Mr Palmer.

"If they were cautioned or convicted or given an ASBO, it'd be taken away, and landlords would be entitled to endorse it with points for rowdy behaviour which would limit the amount that could be purchased or lead to a shorter-term ban.

" While, like any system, it would be subject to evasion by friends buying alcohol, it would explicitly target problem drinkers while leaving others to enjoy a drink without government interference."

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