I welcome all members to our 139th Annual conference, the first one not held at Easter weekend since 1876! I hope that the decision to hold our meetings on the third weekend in April will prove to have been a good one. I wish to thank all the management and staff at Glenfall House for their help in organising our Conference; we know that we will be well looked after since this is our third Conference held at this venue.

The basis of our membership is to live a life free from alcohol; what began as an organization in the nineteenth century, teaching the benefits of sobriety to a gin-ridden society has survived to the twenty-first century, continuing to teach sobriety to the binge-drinkers in today's society. As an organization we have kept up with progress; we have modernised our organization when necessary but the alcohol-drinking public have, in many cases, failed to modernise their lifestyle - there can be few drinkers who do not know the basic facts about the effects that alcohol can have upon them but yet they still seem unwilling to curtail the use of this drug.

Why does society still have to deal with the effects of alcoholic beverages? Binge-drinking is still a concern, even after four years of the availability of twenty-four hour licensing. The 'Alcohol Awareness Week' ran from 7th to 14th April 2008, though how widely was it publicised? Will it make any difference to the attitude towards alcohol amongst binge-drinkers? If statistics before the Week are anything to go by then the answer will be 'no'. Recent statistics [1] show that 150 youths are admitted to hospital each week as a result of alcohol-related conditions, an increase of 40% than before the relaxation of the licensing laws. The same article stated that in the South-West the increase was 80%, blamed on round-the-clock drinking and cheap booze, though breakdown of family life was also suggested as a contributory factor.

Breakdown of family life was also suggested as a cause of binge-drinking by Mr Justice Coleridge, who said family life was in 'meltdown'. He said, "I am not saying that every broken family produces dysfunctional children but I am saying that almost every dysfunctional family is the product of a broken family." Of course, it would be easy to say that all binge-drinkers must be the product of a broken family. This is not true: it is possible for children to become binge-drinkers even when they are from a nuclear family: I know of a case of two fourteen year old girls who had alcohol at some point during the morning, went to a friends house for lunch and while they were there they had vodka and advocat, so much so that they were drunk for afternoon lessons; needless to say they were excluded from school for a week.

Although he admitted that his pubs were not 'angelic' and were 'out to make a buck', Tim Martin, Chairman of JD Wetherspoon, said that he blamed parents for underage drinking [2], suggesting that parents 'actively collaborate' in underage binge drinking. His reason for this is that he believed Government campaigns against binge-drinking would fail because police resources were focused on keeping underage people out of licensed premises instead of targeting parents who collaborate in their child's drinking. It is interesting to note that since the smoking ban Wetherspoon has suffered as increasing food sales failed to balance out the decline in drink sales.

The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, said during a speech to the Local Government Association Conference in February 2008:

'Later this year, we will run a multi-million pound national campaign that will take our current communications work to a whole new level. It will set out, in no uncertain terms, the dangers of with binge drinking, and raise awareness on recommended units of intake and the dangers of regularly exceeding those levels'.

Certainly the Government knows the problems that alcohol causes in the UK; they say the sort of things our Organization wants to hear, but the practice often fails to live up to the promises. If the Government really wanted to make a difference it would make alcohol advertising illegal, so that young people in particular are not bombarded by the allure of alcohol - I accept that if young people want to drink they will still do so whether they see it advertised or not but by stopping advertising on the television it will take it out of the public gaze.

The Government also needs to make sure that the punishments for being caught driving while over the limit (which the Government has hinted that it wants to lower to bring it in line with some other European countries) need to be stronger so as to show that they are really concerned that driving whilst under the influence of alcohol can kill. They also need to ensure that those drinkers who are found to be drunk and disorderly are punished more strongly so as to send out the message that alcohol is not a substance to be played with, and that the emphasis is on the fact that it is a drug.

Come on, Mr Brown - you wanted the job as Prime Minister for many years, now show us that you are really the man for the job. You once said that you were in favour of changing the relaxation of the licensing laws, but you seem to have changed your mind. Is it due to pressure from brewers and licensees?

The public are concerned about the economy, jobs, the Health Service; if I was PM I would get the alcohol situation sorted as it causes many lost days to industry due to days lost though hangovers, the Health Service's precious budget would be greatly helped if it didn't have to deal with alcohol-related cases, and the economy would be all the better for it. Take my advice, and tackle the problems - then we might become a country that people feel is safer, happier and less alcohol-focused.

IOGT England and Wales has been telling Government the problems and giving them solutions for years: I hope that this year they will hear our voice.

Enjoy the Conference, join in the discussions and help to make our Organization heard. Our message is clear; the best way to be is alcohol-free.

Andrew K. Bradley,
National President,
IOGT England and Wales.

References:
[1] Daily Mail, February 15th 2008, p.17
[2] Daily Mail, March 8th 2008