'Government's anti-booze campaign "woefully inadequate", says research group'
"Government anti-drinking campaigns are woefully inadequate and have failed to tackle the growing drink problem, research shows. It concludes that politicians must learn from hard-hitting and effective campaigns on issues such as smoking and Aids if the rise in "high risk" drinking is to be contained. But the report, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, warns that scare tactics or messages that blame or vilify people who drink too much could prove counter-productive. The estimated number of high-risk drinkers in England is about two and a half million. Approximately one million of the adult population are alcohol-dependent." - Observer
"Council officials are to work with disability groups to draw up a list of Edinburgh pubs with disabled toilets. The move follows a call from wheelchair user Mark Cooper who complained to the council after being forced to leave a pub he was in as it had no disabled toilet. The 24-year-old was on a night out with friends at 56 North in West Crosscauseway but had to leave and go 200 yards down the road to another bar, Native State, which he knew had an accessible toilet." - Scotsman
"The fantasy of 24-hour drinking is civilised men and women sipping a glass of something dry and white at a table on a sun-dappled high street. The reality is those grotesque images of Danielle Lloyd, bloody and weeping after being thrown on to a table of drinks. Such scenes happen every weekend in every town in the country. Those pitiful pictures of a sobbing, blood-smeared WAG remind us that the British are simply not cut out for 24-hour boozing. Time, gentlemen, please." - Mirror
"Almost 1,600 young people are currently being treated for alcohol addiction in Scotland, it has emerged. An investigation by the Sunday Herald showed that the number of those aged 18 or under in counselling has doubled since November 2006, when there were 689 who had help for a drink problem." - Sunday Herald
"Wildlife TV presenter Sir David Attenborough has bought the derelict pub next door to his stunning Edwardian house in Richmond upon Thames, South-West London, for £1m - and so stopped the possibility of a block of flats being built. Sir David has finalised plans to extend his powder-blue house by joining it with part of the pub called The Hole In The Wall and promised he will keep the facade." - Mail on Sunday
And finally...
"Celebrity chef Rick Stein welcomed a cheeky guest to his new pub - a bird which is nesting in an ashtray. The canny blue tit has set up home in the wall-mounted ashtray in the beer garden of Mr Stein's Cornish Arms, at St Merryn near Padstow in North Cornwall. Customers noticed the bird flitting in and out of the metal box and on closer inspection saw it had built a nest among the butt ends and ash." - The Cornishman
