Chris Maclean: the moral maze

I have just spent a fascinating morning in a local school talking to the sixth form about "morality in the workplace".

As I licensee I retail alcohol ~ a mind altering substance that is often abused. I have to balance my needs as a businessman intent on making money with my legal obligations and my moral ones.

The former is easy enough. I need to stick within the law, not sell to minors, refuse to serve drunks or, worse, smokers and to adhere to any other restraints.

But in addition to this there is the moral maze licensees are faced with every day. This is the area we explored.

Firstly, in a group of about 60 young people, all 17 or younger, about six said they had never bought alcohol in a pub. I was surprised it was as many as that. There were teachers there so I didn't explore drugs and sex. But these people did know pubs.

The second thing was their understanding of age limits. Many of them felt they were responsible enough to drink sensibly but many of them admitted they had been drunk in pubs.

What I was trying to encourage was an understanding of the pub as a safe, convivial environment where people could relax and unwind without fear.

Still, many of them were quite harsh in their views.

What about drunks? Chuck them out.

Alcoholics? Don't serve them.

Simplistic but sad.

I have once seen a customer so drunk in a pub in this town that the staff and customers carried the poor fellow out and laid him in the gutter to sober up. Presumably after which they could start serving him again.

We licensees have been given a tough call with the smoking ban but there are some people out there who believe this is simply a precursor to a ban on alcohol. I hope this is wrong. But unless we grasp the issue of the moral dimension of what we deliver we will simply be inviting our own destruction.

I hope the students understand what we do is decent and honest but we need to keep our ranks in order.