London - If there was any doubt that Britain is affluent, it has been dispelled by the news that police are handing out free chocolate to revellers emerging from pubs at closing time.
The evidence of affluence is in any case incontrovertible. Expensive four-wheel drives clog London's narrow streets, about two million fled the country for a brief break over the Easter weekend and around a quarter of seven-to-ten-year-olds have cellphones.
Another symptom of this wealth is - paradoxically - a rise in violent crime, which is being fuelled by rampant alcohol consumption.
In the last three months of 2003, there were 271 500 reported incidents of violent crime, up 11 percent on the year.
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| 'Out-of-control drinking can turn a night out into a nightmare' |
Figures show a rise of around 50 percent since 1998, to close to a million incidents a year.
The Home Office says much of the increase in violence is due to new recording procedures and the greater reporting of low-level thuggery, which rose by 21 percent, but it also sees alcohol as a major cause.
Police intend to target binge-drinking in town and city centres during the summer in an attempt to reduce the number of alcohol-related assaults.
Pubs are being urged to cut back on promotions like happy hours, which encourage drinking in the early afternoon in the hope that pub-goers will stay on afterwards and continue to consume.
Alcohol is connected to 70 percent of late-night admissions to hospital emergency rooms across Britain.
| 'The government is cracking down on irresponsible landlords' |
A minister at the Home Office, Hazel Blears, says:
"Out-of-control drinking can turn a night out into a nightmare. The time has come to say enough is enough.
"The government is cracking down on irresponsible landlords who encourage binge drinking, we are going to put an end to no-go city centres, reclaiming them for decent, law-abiding citizens," she says.
Police confronting the effects of the affluent society after drink-fuelled weekend partying - particularly in university towns - are fed up.
"Alcohol-fuelled violence in town and city centres on Friday and Saturday nights has become the norm. We need to alter this state of affairs if we are going to make any impact on the rise in violent offences," says Rick Naylor, president of the Police Superintendents' Association.
"The police and other emergency services are fed up with clearing up the broken bodies, broken glass, discarded kebabs and vomit which seem to follow every Friday and Saturday's so-called entertainment in towns and cities across the country," he adds.
Police are calling for pubs that advertise "pay £10 (about R122) and drink as much as you can", to be closed.
And the Home Office is planning a crackdown to reduce underage drinking through sting operations to catch pubs, clubs and off-licences selling alcohol to underage people.
But Bournemouth police have come up with the most innovative idea - to offer those leaving the pub at closing time a large dose of sweet chocolate.
The aim is to give potential yobs something more important to do than hit someone, and the hope is that the release of endorphins triggered by eating chocolate will reduce aggression.
Police in the south-west English seaside resort of have begun wielding the "chocolate cosh", handing out KitKat to revellers, but say it is too early to assess this experiment in curing the ills of affluence with yet more excess. - Sapa-dpa
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