complicity

Morning.
Right, after yesterdays farce today i am going to attempt to write something a little more relevant. I feel a little dazed this morning to be fair, thank god it's my day off i'll have a chance to prepare for the weekend: night out in town tonight somewhere, playing in the Brunswick in Gloucester on friday and then in the Dublin Castle in Camden on saturday. If you're around for either of the above shows please come along, they'll be great nights.
Speaking of the show at the Brunswick has given me an idea for the gist of this entry, and that is 24 hour licensing.

So in a society riddled with 'binge-drinking', street crime, alcohol related violence and one of the highest rates of alcoholism in europe, surely trying to introduce 24 hour drinking is a recipe for disaster? Well no, i'm convinced that it is in fact the only way we stand any chance of solving these societal problems. In a developed society in which everyone is working longer hours and i dunno maybe 80% (random figure plucked from the air) work 9-5 monday to friday, giving these people only 6 hours (without taking into account clubs) of drinking time, equates to a highly pressurised environment. 'Gotta have a good night, gotta have fun, gotta get wasted, gotta get laid etc etc' which of course creates tension, which by and large is kept in check by bouncers and bar staff. Then come 11.20 (or 2.20, if you wanna involve clubs) every one of these seething, dribbling, incoherant, sexually charged neanderthals is ejected into the street, unchecked, free to fight, loot, fuck, riot, rape and vomit.
Surely, by removing the time/pressure element of the equation, you remove a major cause of tension. If people knew that for example, they could finish work at 5 on friday, go home, get changed, have something nice to eat, shower, have a drink, watch friends, meet up with some friends and head out at 11, and come home whenever they feel like it. The point of conflict ie closing time would be removed.

I have two concerns about this new law;
1. That pubs and clubs are going to half-heartedly embrace this, and open til maybe 1, or 2am. which i can understand completely, who wants to have to find staff to work 24 hours etc. But this is really going to make things a lot worse as you're not removing the crisis point, just allowing people to get even more fucked before hand, then chucking them out to kill each other. Which links to...
2.That things will initiallty get worse is undeniable, human nature being what it is, things are going to get messy. However in a couple of years when the novelty has worn off and everyone realises there really is no rush and they really can drink themselves into oblivion starting at 4am if they want. That is when progress will come. But this of course is dependant on the government having the strength not to back down and revoke it before it has a chance to come fully into effect, or the government is brought down by the outcry from the daily mail (fuck it! i'm not capitalising that rag) readership and then the tories revoke it.
Thus leading to the point being missed completely and an ever spiralling drink, blood and vomit soaked disaster.

So to sum up, come to the Brunswick to support the launch of their extended licence and begin the battle to clear our streets of the ravening hoardes of wankered chavs.
Ah thank you.