A CHURCH leader has attacked Government attempts to tackle alcohol abuse, an issue he said was ‘one of the major sins of our time’.
In a strongly worded letter published in parish magazines throughout the Diocese of Lichfield, the Bishop of Stafford, Rt Rev Geoff Annas, suggested the stance adopted by the coalition — as well as previous administrations — had allowed the problem to continue unchecked.
“I have plenty of experience of seeing the effects of the excessive consumption of alcohol and several times in my youth felt such effects myself — but I certainly do not understand the attitude of successive governments to a problem that blights our society and colours the view the rest of the world has of our nation,” he said.
“Alcohol abuse is one of the major ‘sins’ of our time, and it is one that governments do very little to prevent.
“Instead it is left to amazing organisations like Alcoholics Anonymous or the inspirational O’Connor Gateway Charitable Trust to tackle the effects.” Bishop Geoff continued: “The Government has introduced minimum pricing, but the level it has been set at is derisory.
“I wonder if anyone really does know the true ‘cost’ of alcohol compared with the income it generates through taxation?” The bishop said his experience had taught him there needed to be ‘a seismic shift in attitudes towards alcohol’, as there had been towards tobacco.
“When I hear of older people afraid to go out at night because of drunken rampages; when I have to tread carefully in the street to avoid the pools of vomit; when I am told by young people going away from home for the first time that every single event of freshers’ week at their university is focused on pub crawls; when I see ‘reality’ shows on the TV that glorify drunken and degrading obscenity as the Brits go on holiday in Europe, and when I join the night church or street pastors and see beautiful but vulnerable young people become more depressed or aggressive as the night wears on, then I think church and society need to speak out.” Bishop Geoff said he was ‘not advocating a temperance revival’, and noted Jesus regarded alcohol as a ‘gift’; but he said he was calling for ‘a more responsible use of this gift’ instead of one in which people drank cheap alcohol at home before going out.
The knock-on effect, he said, was that 80 per cent of all domestic violence and 60 per cent of all admissions to hospital accident and emergency departments on Friday and Saturday nights were alcoholrelated.
