Chris Orr comments on… Binge drinking

The government’s appointment of Louise Casey to manage a growing crisis that faces our industry leaves Chris Orr feeling less than comfortable.

If you were running a private club, would you put Groucho Marx in charge of your membership programme? I didn’t think so. His infamous remark that “I sent the club a wire stating, please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member,” is the kind of remark that more or less disqualifies him from holding the post. It’s not so much that he wouldn’t be capable of the job. I’m sure he’d have been an incredibly witty, hard-nosed and scrupulously uneven handed (as all membership secretaries who know their beef are. But you still wouldn’t have given him the job.

Likewise with Louise Casey. “Doing things sober is no way to get things done,” was just one of the tactless quotes that she made at a private conference between the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers just over two months ago when she  addressed the attendees. “I suppose you can’t binge drink any more because lots of people have said you can’t do it. I don’t know who bloody made that up, it’s nonsense.”

Well actually Ms Casey, it’s not. Last year statistics were put forward by the NHS revealing that 9 children a day are admitted to hospitals. Just last month, the Office of National Statistics revealed that alcohol deaths had risen by 20% in the last five years and that since 2000, the diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver in certain parts of the country has risen by nearly 50%. That’s not made up. That’s sad true fact.

So why had the government decided to put her in charge of its controversial “respect agenda” , when she clearly has an inability to “respect” the seriousness of the situation. Now I don’t believe that she isn’t capable of running the show. She’s one of the most senior female officials in Whitehall – and at only 38, so she’s clearly immensely talented and intelligent. But whether we like it or not, binge drinking is a massively important issue for us as an industry and whatever government does in this regard will have huge impact on the everyday working lives of those who toil within the drinks sector.

So personally, I don’t feel comfortable having someone like Ms Casey in charge of a key aspect of government approach to the problem – namely  building “respect” within our communities and “working together on neighbourhood renewal and anit-social behaviour”, of which binge drinking amongst the young is a major contributor. If she thinks it’s OK to get “hammered” and talk about thumping Downing Street officials, I think she’s rather talked herself out of a job. And yet there she is.

How very bizarre. To be frank it puts me in mind of another famous quote by Groucho Marx, that could be applied to the current government and its policies on alcohol and binge drinking. “Those are my principles,” said the moustachioed comic, “and if you don’t like them… well, I have plenty of others”