Happy New Year Bob!

Ingenuous solution but not sure it's workable - proof of origin isn't proof of a crime, shopkeepers would take refuge in the claim that it was sold to an older relative / friend or stolen etc. The only way police could refute that defense would be if they could produce CCTV footage to the contrary - and if they could produce that then they have enough material for a conviction anyway.

Not sure what Sandwell's like but in most areas in the West Scotland the police know full well which shops are supplying the booze so the problem isn't identifying them, it's prosecuting them - barcoding won't help that...

I don't agree, Liam. It is perfectly lawful for trading standards officers to use young people to go in to a shop and 'test purchase' alcohol, and then to take action against the shopkeepers and use the evidence to review a license. It happens all the while but with the proliferation of outlets it is becomming more difficult, and that is why we need to narrow down the traders to try to see who is offending.

Happy New Year Bob.

Now whilst I did have a wee dram on New Year's Eve (I was in Scotland, it was only polite), I did notice that whilst filling the car with petrol before the drive up North, the petrol station didn't have any anti-freeze mix to put in the car windscreen washer water thingie (you know what I mean). It wasn't that they'd sold out, but rather that they'd converted the part of the store that used to sell auto accessories, new wiper blades and so on, to an off-license. Good job there's those "hard-hitting" anti drink-driving adverts, though.

As for bar-coding, though I dislike the idea, of course it's feasible - stores in Germany take back bottles with a deposit on them( coke, beer, wine, etc.). Technically they're only required to take back bottles they've sold and have machines which scan the bottles as you drop them in and they'll "refuse" ones they don't recognise.

extended drinking hours

How do you work out that this does not encourage binge drinking ? It does, that was part if the stated aim , ie to help the local economy. Whilst Brown has presided over a break down I law and order in Urban areas which this has not helped he has been severe on moderate drinkers like me who now find all the local pubs are going out of business thanks to his insane anti smoking crusade .The working men?s club has already gone as has the Bingo hall.

I have yet to meet anyone with a good word to say about this infantilising act of busy bodying micro management and if there is one thing that sums up everything I detest about New Labour it is that as working man I cannot go to the pub and smoke a cigarette because a media studies , bimbo parachuted into an old mining seat wags her finger at me .
There is no evidence of any real passive smoking risk and this assault on English habits older than the Labour Party is an arrogant disgrace

I am not alone. What next Bob, what are you going to dream up next to make life that little bit more miserable? We know what that will be don?t we , banning drinking ! Live music has been destroyed , I `m surprised you don?t want to ban sex and finally have every sane human being hurling themselves off Beachyhead to get away from you. ! New labour run this country the way Basil Fawlty ran Fawlty Towers .From the NHS (cure yourself ) to the many petty restrictions imposed on adult tax payers about what they can say do and think .They love the country, its just the people that are such an inconvenience . In New Labour?s view people really must stay here they should at least live in the most unpleasant way they can dream up.

Basil ! Basil !!! Are you there ? Baaaaasil....!

What a confused person. So much gibberish it is difficult to know where to start and so lacking in structure and coherence it is almost unbelievable. This is the best example I have seen yet of an idiot. Someone who accuses the government of deregulation and micro-management without drawing breath.

Binge drinking isn't... errm, drinking, you muppet. It is drinking copious amounts in a short space of time. Extending the licensing hours doesn't do that.

God's teeth, it's difficult doing this sometimes.

.It is drinking copious amounts in a short space of time.

Which you can now do later if you like .In any case it is also drinking a lot for a long time as you will see after late closing in any High Street. It is entirely possible to over regulate (drivers and employers for example ) and in other ways let it all hang out ,( immigration ? Come as you are ... ). I just found it ironic that when the ordinary pub goer is persecuted, the raving bug eyed teenage alky is actively encouraged. Good job.

PS
The British Medical Association states that "there is no consensus on the definition of binge drinking. In the past, 'binge drinking' was often used to refer to an extended period of time, usually two days or more, during which a person repeatedly drank to intoxication, giving up usual activities."[1] The Journal of Studies on Alcohol defines binge drinking as an extended period, typically at least two days,

Since you like spelling how about this; W and R and O and N and G , all in a row make up the word WRONG.

Haven`t been swigging the Sherry already have you Bob?

No, newmania, sherry is what they swig in poncy areas like Lewes... not that even out of my brain on sherry I would ever need spelling lessons from some useless dipstick with a qualification in English Literature. By the way... did they teach you to start your sentences with a full stop?

How refreshing to see a Tory desperately trying to introduce immigration into every subject.

Presumably, plonker, you thought the previous licensing hours stopped 'binge drinking' of two days at a time and it was only opening an extra couple of hours that introduced it.

Give me strength to cope!

You are truly the most illogical and stupid person to post here since the late Michael Oakeshott. Perhaps I should consider making you an award in his honour.

Bob, I'm getting really worried...

You nearly agreed with me the other day and now I find that I'm no longer the most illogical or stupid person leaving comments here!

Your plan wouldn't work as it's too bureaucratic. Why isn't Sandwell able to introduce a ban on drinking in certain public places that is enforcable just as it is in other boroughs as a local bye-law?

Are you allowed to condemn the parents that let their children out drinking late into the night? Are these the same parents that should be given control over local schools to improve provision as suggested by the Conservatives!?!

I have so many people to thank....

Do I get this right ? Government policy (smoking ban ) is closing lots of pubs which with the longer opening hours were the cause of binge drinking .Therefore the government is decreasing the opportunity to binge drink and the effects of secondhand smoke in one fell swoop. Bloody good public health move

Snafu, Sandwell has issued a ban on drinking in public places, but I suspect you wouldn't want to employ the thousands of police necessary to enforce it 24-hours a day in every park whilst the burglars did away with your plasma tv.

Certainly newmania has walked away with the award for stupid comments, snafu, I'm afraid you'll have to try harder and invent your own grammatical rules if you are going to challenge him.

Bob, you're far too logical... have you been drinking?

Oh do give it a rest. Do you think I don`t know why you are reduced this inchoate bluster ?