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.
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