Relaxed Drinking

Many years ago, Ipswich used to shut the pubs at 10:30 except on Friday and Saturday. The surrounding county, East Suffolk, used to shut at 11:00.

There used to be all sorts of trouble and mayhem in that half hour as everybody got into cars and rushed from town to the countryside. It stopped when everybody moved to 11:00.

I think that in many places we have the same problem now. At 11:00 everybody leaves and goes to a club to carry on drinking. Groups, who have very different tastes and lifestyles are thrown together and trouble ensues.

In all fields of human activity, when you relax the rules, everybody behaves better.

I have no intention of going for a drink late, but I bet in a few months, a lot of pubs will say they have gained a whole lot of new and sensible customers.