Why do zealots always misread cause and effect?

One of Britain's charities, Alcohol Concern, has today come out with the ridiculous proposal that parents who give their children under 15 wine at home should be prosecuted. Joining the ever growing list of 'protectionist' charities who seem to believe that protecting children from absolutely everything is the answer to all adult problems, Alcohol Concern has today, in addition to this crackpot scheme, suggested a 16% rise in alcohol taxes and a ban on brewers selling alcohol at discount rates to retail outlets.



Now I'm all in favour of sensible measures to curb all Britain's social ills, but this is not one of them. Why don't these zealots look at our neighbours across the Channel? French families have a long history of allowing their children to consume a glass of wine with meals under supervision and, while the French have a lot of faults, I don't see one of them being hordes of teenage kids rolling around drunk on city streets as they do in England.




One of the problems here is that there IS no civilised and mature approach to acquainting children with alcohol. Instead of it being part and parcel of a civilised life style, as it is in France, here it's some kind of rite of passage whereby kids need to drink as much as they can, in pubs and usually below the legal age, and to consequently throw up to the amusement of their mates. That macho drink culture is not going to be stopped by proposed measures like this. Instead the people caught in such a trap would be the middle class parents who do have a sensible approach to informing their children about alcohol and how to drink it.




Once again we have a charity which tries to solve a social problem for some by imposing a nanny-state solution on everybody. The laws are in place already to ensure that children are brought up responsibly. If there is clear evidence of some moron allowing his 8 year old to drink pints of beer until the child is sick or drunk, then that constitutes child cruelty and he/she can already be taken to court.

To suggest taking away the responsibility from intelligent parents on how soon to introduce their children to drink sensibly is ludicrous. Frankly I'd take away the charitable status of Alcohol Concern if they come up with any more stupid schemes like this!