Time, Gentlemen, Time? Sinking Pints Sinking In Britain
The Sunday Age
Sunday December 9, 2007
With beer sales in Britain falling fast, some are worried about the passing of a national pastime. Jacqueline Maley reports.
IT'S more traditional than Devonshire tea and more predictable than a sodden summer. To Britons, sinking pints at the local is part of their birthright. But this proud pastime is under threat. According to research that has traditionalists across Britain spluttering into their ale, Britons are losing their taste for beer. Sales of the national drink are at their lowest level since the 1930s, according to research published last week, which shows the home of the lager lout could be in danger of developing a European-style wine culture. The research, released by the British Beer and Pub Association, reveals a marked slump in beer sales. The volume of beer sold through pubs is now at the lowest level since the Great Depression. Overall beer sales through both pubs and off-licenses - corner stores registered to sell booze - are at their lowest level since 1979. Most tragically for the lager-soaked traditionalist, pub beer sales are down 49% from their peak in 1979, which means that each day 14 million fewer pints are being sold than at the dawn of Thatcher-era Britain. "The time to support our national drink is long overdue," came the calls to arms from the British Beer and Pub Association's chief executive, Rob Hayward. "We are calling for government policy to encourage and support Britain's businesses."The association blames the sales slump on excessive government taxes, and also complains that the production costs of beer have soared, with rises in the prices of barley, malt, glass, aluminium and energy. But other experts say the change is grounded in cultural reasons as well as economic ones, with the increase in female drinkers and the influence of European wine culture having an impact on national drinking habits. "This country has changed," says John Porter, the pub food editor of The Publican magazine. "The peak year for beer sales was 1979 - and it was also the year that Margaret Thatcher was elected. Since then, the manufacturing industry has shrunk, so the old-fashioned boozer where you come out of the factory and sink a few pints to rehydrate is disappearing."Traditionally, pubs were post-work, male-heavy zones, and the practice of buying rounds was entrenched, so a binge-drinking culture was fostered. The rise of the single woman and increased female financial independence has meant that pubs have had to cater increasingly to birds as well as blokes. "Now groups of women will happily go out and have a bottle of wine after work," says Porter. The other trend that threatens the future of beer is food in pubs. It has taken several hundred years, but the European habit of combining drinking with eating is slowly catching on in Britain. About 80% of British pubs now offer some sort of food, from humble plates of chips and eggs to the flasher fare dished up at so-called gastro-pubs, which often pride themselves on using only organic, locally grown produce, and have a long wine list. "All the figures show that we drink much more wine than we used to," Porter says. "People are more confident about wine than they were. It's much cheaper than it used to be . . . We are slowly adapting to a more casual style of dining, combining drink and food."But Dr Rachel Seabrook, research manager at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, is less optimistic. She believes it will take more than a few middle-class chardonnay sippers to conquer the entrenched British culture of binge drinking which, despite the drop in beers sales, shows no sign of abating. "Concerns about excessive drinking in Britain have a long history right back to Gin Lane," she says, referring to the famous William Hogarth engraving (its lesser-known counterpart is Beer Street) depicting the public drunkenness and debauchery of 18th-century London. "Back then, it was about the working classes being too drunk to work and now it's more about health concerns. The focus changes but the culture stays the same," says Seabrook.Government research released last week indicated that one in five 10-to-15 year-olds regularly get drunk, and the British Medical Journal has reported an increase in women presenting at hospitals with alcohol-induced bladder rupture.The drinking patterns of southern Europe - where wine is drunk in moderation, with family, as part of the overall diet - are often invoked by politicians wishing to address British binge drinking. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently spoke of the need for "creating a cultural shift" as he announced a pre-Christmas blitz on under-age drinking.Dr Seabrook thinks Brown has his work cut out, because the British drinking culture is complex and ancient. As for the advent of European-style drinking-and-dining culture, she thinks the climate is all wrong. "Ah, the much fabled cafe culture," she sighs. "It's just too cold. Trying to bring that culture to Britain is a bit of a forlorn hope, I think."
© 2007 The Sunday Age