Neo-Prohibitionism in the U.K.

"is it too early to say the F word (and by that I mean Fascism)"

No, I think they're there, in the UK and in the USA. Fascism - but for the funny salutes. They're (the UK/US) also ripe police states. Oh yes, it could be even worse, true.

I agree that these alcohol measures attack the symptom not the problem, but let's be clear: they're not prohibition. Alcohol is still legally produced by businesses who pay their taxes and don't murder their rivals, and have to abide by all manner of regulations on quality control, responsible sales etc.

I would gladly accept a dispensation where I could buy my currently illicit drugs from a regulated supplier, but wasn't allowed to smoke them in the street.

If we're making Alcohol illegal again, can I be Al Capone?

It's the Labour government being in power since '97 that's sunk this country even futher down the tubes to being the kind of place with a chavscum problem to begin with.
The 'binge drinking' thing is a really bad problem, but of course the problem hasn't got anything to do with alcohol itself.

I can't say that alcohol makes you stupid, it does drop your guard and makes you very forgiving - but again, that's only a problem because there's bad people around in the first place.
Like any drug, alcohol makes bad people even worse.

It's not the drink and drugs that are the problem. The problem is they're breeding all these hotspots of total scumbags who don't care about themselves so they sure don't give a fuck what they do to anyone else's lives. And they get tanked up on various whatevers then go roaming around wrecking things and making it unsafe to unpleasant for anyone else to be out and about, sober or otherwise.

Any of you get Little Britain ove there? Vicky Pollards are real! All of Ali G's patter - based on total 100% fact; that is what so many young uns are actually like here. They don't have a clue. There were loads of them even when I was at school. They used to only exist in "bad areas" but now they are everywhere.

The link to Pete Brown's blog is not working.
Btw, I'm strongly against prohibition, I think we simply have a right to experience various mental states - but still I think that "adding alcohol to the pile" would at least be honest. Alcohol is one of the most dangerous drugs, it makes people stupid, but it's understood as The Norm - yes, it's easy to be perceived as some weirdo just for not drinking alcohol. And those who choose other psychoactives - including some that are much less harmful than alcohol - are labelled as degenerates, criminals and a threat to the society. It wouldn't be that bad to let "alco-junkies" experience this exclusion for a while.