Conservative leadership contenders David Cameron and David Davis clashed over binge drinking yesterday on the first day of Britain’s so-called "24-hour drinking" culture.
With more than 1,000 pubs, clubs and shops set to sell alcohol around the clock, Mr Davis warned that the new era of liberalised drinking was creating "no-go areas for decent people" and promised to review the relaxation of the 90-year-old drink laws if he came to power.
However, with compulsory 11pm closing now a thing of the past across England and Wales, Mr Cameron declared he would not turn the clock back. And he warned Mr Davis he risked turning younger voters away from the Tory Party by making them feel they were being branded as yobs and criminals.
After a generally quiet response to the new dispensation on opening times, Devon and Cornwall police were among those signalling no let-up in the campaign against "yob culture" - serving notice that undercover police posing as pub customers would issue fines to bar staff who serve visibly drunk customers.
And the police federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, echoed Mr Davis’s warning that the government would have to think again if the change in the law led to an explosion of drink-fuelled violence on the streets.
Joining Mr Cameron in the last head-to-head television debate of the Tory leadership contest, Mr Davis described the 24-hour-opening as "madness" and said: "We have a situation where the centres of many towns and cities in this country are no-go areas for decent people." Mr Cameron warned, however: "when you say ‘no-go areas for decent people’ you are implying that anyone who does go out is not a decent person. You have got to be very, very careful, David.
"That’s something the Conservative Party has got to understand. We have to show we understand people’s aspirations and not sound all the time as if we are preaching at people."
While binge drinking was "a real problem" which police must have the powers to deal with, Mr Cameron said it was important not to demonise young drinkers. To which Mr Davis replied: "That doesn’t help somebody who has somebody vomiting in their front drive."
Ordinary people, he said, wanted politicians to help them reclaim their town centres: "If you go talk to people in many of these towns and cities and ask them ‘Can you go to the centre of Manchester after 8pm?’ they say: ‘No and I want you the politicians to sort it out, not give us platitudes’."
The latest survey of licensing authorities suggests that fewer than 400 pubs and clubs - 0.5 per cent of the total - have so far acquired the right to open all hours.