Brown calls time on young drinkers

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Title – Brown calls time on young drinkers
Source – Metro
Date – 22nd November 2007

Alcohol related anti-social behaviour has now reached the highest level of the political agenda and Prime Minister Gordon Brown is himself calling for action to be taken against those that flaunt the law within the licensed retail sector.

But report after report demonstrates the uphill battle faced especially my small retailers from gangs, youths and repeat offenders. Sitting in the house of commons and using the sound bites to win political favour is one thing and no one would argue that the sentiment is correct, but where they take action on one front they have to also take action on the other and start dealing with the other causes of anti social behaviour and the violence and aggression faced by independent retailers on a daily basis.

Once again it seems like the government is intent on punishment without really examining the problems faced every day and in many cases the reluctance of the authorities or their inability to deal with the root causes. Many retailers feel that they have been abandoned on the front line of social conflict as they are terrorised by youths. Often the easiest and safest solution is to sell to underage children rather then face violence from gangs and individuals. They feel the support is simply not available, when they report crime it is not dealt with as a priority or sometimes it is simply becomes a statistic, which for the victim makes the point of reporting it in the first place a waste of time.


Training is one way not only of empowering staff, but also of teaching them vital knowledge to enable them to better understand their responsibilities. In the case of our Conflict Management and Resolution courses or Physical Intervention courses, it trains them to be in a better position to protect themselves in the case of aggression or physical violence. Our approach is to concentrate on reducing the threat rather then teaching self defence techniques, prevention being better then the cure. However when the situation does get out of hand staff need to be able to remove themselves from the situation and call for help. Our low impact personal safety techniques provide the basic skills to achieve this.



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