“An 'undercover' officer will stand out like a sore thumb in a pub and will be easily spotted,folk will feel uncomfortable drinking there and leave,publican gets annoyed over the loss of business,police aren't allowed to drink while on duty and if they do,well that will go down like a lead balloon with the public and give rise to questions about their actions while under the influence.Whoever thought this idea up isn't very clever.”

“So what happens when police officers in their plain clothes do end up trying to arrest someone inside a pub that doesnt want to be arrested. Would that not cause further problems and put people at risk.
If the bouncers at the club dont know who the police are either then there will end up being one heck of a fight inside the place.
Think I'll get my booze from Tesco with a DVD from now on.”

“I'm not devaluing the job that these people do, but they don't have the powers that the police force would have in that situation.

They throw someone out of a club and then they just try to get into somewhere esle. Whereas the police would have the ability to detain them and either charge them or wait for them to sober up before releasing them.”

“"Door staff stop people going in that are too drunk, then what happens when they are inside?" Then the door staff with assistance from other staff continue to monitor them when inside.

Thats the whole point of security staff (calling them "door" staff really devalues the overall job that they do”

“Ian, Kidsgrove... Do you really think a sensible solution is to prevent the sale if alcohol before 6 pm? Essentially you are saying that shops couldn¿t sell alcohol to anybody doing their weekly shop. And how would a 6 pm licensing law prevent people from getting drunk? The people that choose to drink before they go out at the weekend will either buy their drink the night before and then start to get drunk whenever they like, or just binge from 6...

The problem with this country is that everything is so up tight and law bound. If you look at somewhere such as Spain you can see that their more relaxed attitude to drink from such an early age teaches children that it isn¿t a taboo and something that they want to break ASAP. Children are accepted in bars and people see drinking as a social occasion with friends where they enjoy a few drinks and talk. Not try to get out of their heads and pick up someone at the end of the night or pick a fight with someone.

My parents allowed me to drink occasionally from my mid teens, the pubs I drank in when I was underage knew me and my family, the understanding that as long as my friends and I behaved ourselves we would be ok, the second we stepped out of line we would be barred!

This act by the police is trying to spot the trouble makers and potential problems before they all spill out onto the street at the end of the night. Door staff stop people going in that are too drunk, then what happens when they are inside? They get drunk... the police can spot this and take action, rather than waiting for it to all spill out onto the street.

They are essentially damned if they do and damned if they don¿t! If they do nothing about the anti social behaviour then they get slammed by everybody, if they try and do something about it then they are wasting there time with something that isn¿t a real crime!!!! Normally by exactly the same people!”

“Hear hear Andy. I was always told that resorting to insults in a debate is an sign they feel they are losing the argument....”

“Bill, Stoke - 100% correct, I agree.
Anon Kidsgrove, now at the stage of name calling and insult. How very embarrassing.”

“the simple measure of not serving very drunk people more alcohol would be a easier solution but this might spoil thier night out if they can't get so drunk they struggle to stand the fact that many will have already started drinking before arriving at the bar does not help the licencee as i doubt shops selling alcohol know how much has been drunk so can sell alcohol with less of the hassel and the bar loses money by not selling drinks to drunks but shops reap the rewards . tighter control on the sale of alcohol in shops would be a better way. like no selling of alcohol before six pm”

“Guess what? If people could behave when they've had a few there wouldn't be any need for this.

Unfortunately there's way too much violence and criminal damage as a result which the taxpayer (ie ALL OF US) then has to foot the bill for hospital treatment and repairs.

The police ARE therefore targetting real criminals because last time I looked assault, criminal damage and D&D were all crimes.”

“Andy, Sandbach, the word you are looking for is cretin.

Having spent twenty five years in pubs I think I am well placed to comment on events here. As regards factually incorrect, maybe you should look a little closer to home.

Gertrude, I read somewhere on here last week about the nine pillars. It seems there is a philosophical element to this. The article I read noted that when a Police force increased beat officers by removing them from panda cars, the crime level actually increased. However, the local populations perception of Policing was elevated simply because of the presence of more Officers.

Maybe there is a parallel here somewhere.”