Couldn't find one about students but it crops up a lot in the DM, usually about them being drunk or supposedly thick.

Here's todays offering;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1071643/Student-drank-death-downing-half-litre-vodka-just-20-minutes-40-bet.html

Some lovely sympathetic comments obviously:

His so called friends should be charged with manslaughter . What makes these idiots , the so called university graduates with brains , drink themselves stupid everynight. Something tells me that Government grants for university must be much more than they make out. As a pensioner I cannot drink myself into oblivion everynight , even though what is going on in the world makes me want to.
- pam, UK, 7/10/2008 16:33


I'm afraid raising the legal drinking age would make zero difference. There is a serious hard-drinking culture in the young, not just university students, and unfortunately they get together and form one very silly and unthinking body - try putting 3 teenagers in a car and you get exactly the same effect. It doesn't matter what the parents, or any other adults say, youngsters will carry on committing group idiocy .
- Helen, Manchester, 7/10/2008 16:59

Helen clearly thinks that one you are over 25 you never ever do anything stupid or mdo anything wrong.


So sad. What a waste. Don't university students ever read newspapers? This sort of incident happens every year to first year students at the start of term. Don't parents ever warn their offspring about the perils of Freshers Week and the first term?.
- Alan, Honiton, UK, 7/10/2008 18:08

I would expect most students are too intelligent to read the Daily Mail.


Having moved from the UK to the USA, I clearly see the difference the age limit has on the culture ! You have to be 21 here to buy alcohol, and the punishments are harsh if caught drinking, that is if you can get the stuff. . If you supply alcohol to someone under age, you can go to jail, simple as that. If an man aged 60 wants to buy alcohol he has to show his ID. No matter how old you are, you show your ID and you expect to be asked. If you dont have ID, you dont get to buy it. Yes some students here can get there hands on some and have a few beers, but nothing like the craziness of what happens in the UK. Thank goodness I am lucky enoughtto be able to bring my kids up here.
- Louise, NY USA, 7/10/2008 19:25

Having been to America when I was 16 and having purchased alcohol there I know for a fact this is bullshit. Many places in the States do not ask for ID. Only places such as Vegas where they cannot risk the scandal of underage gambling, are that strict.

You know... and here's the thing... 30 years ago we couldnt afford to drink that much alcohol... so who is to blame... parents, banks, govt for making the money available ? these days students have too much when they should actually have less... go figure...
- clarioneer, ferndown,Dorset, 7/10/2008 22:13

Yes, the solution to everything is to deliberately make people poor. What a twat.


Thankfully most of the comments disagree with the idea of raising the drinking age to 21, which is frankly an idea which wont work.

Surely, though, by raising the drinking age to 21, you'd have an extra three years worth of underage drinkers skulking on street corners etc. skulling shitty lager and alcopops as opposed to within the relatively controlled environs of the pub?

We don't need new drinking laws. We need to enforce the ones we have.

Exactly my thinking. There is also an argument for actually relaxing the id checks for buying drink in pubs. It's a given that most people will drink in a pub before they turn 18 so why not allow 16 and 17 year olds to drink in pubs as this would get them off the street and under some form of supervision. In my experience a lot of the kids who drink start around Year 7 or 8 by trying a bit of the drink that the older teens (Year 10 and 11 usually) have got hold of. They then are encouraged and gradually drink more. If the 16 and 17 years olds (maybe even 15 year olds) are encouraged into pubs then it becomes harder for the younger kids to get drunk on the streets and the pub industry will get a much needed boost.

A grumpy old man writes,

They're pubs not creches. Bad enough with Wetherspoons and screaming kids. No problem with them coming into the pub as long as they keep quiet, keep away from Cradle of Filth on the jukebox, and don't use the phrase " I was so not...." or "and then she was like...." and cry when they get their arse kicked in the Quiz.

In my day we got the person with the gruffest voice and facial hair (preferrably male) to go to the bar and sit in the dark corner and buy the Warcry if the R.E. teacher came in.

Whenever I see a fellow student buy the Mail, it makes me weep. I saw a girl t'other day, buying it happily in a uni cafe. Oh the woes!

That goes to show what a poor quality of student you get these days. With student discount all the qualities (including the FT) were cheaper than the Mail et al in the days of yore and I suspect they still are.

Yarr, the Guardian is 30p and I think the Times is cheapy too.

According to the link Skol lager is being sold by Asda at a price cheaper then water. Astonishing... until you read further and find that's they are comparing it with bottled water. Mind you, once water has been filtered through a pair of kidneys it would be difficult to tell the drinks apart (standing on a chair and peeing into the glass will achieve an impressive head).

I thought that was how Skol was produced. There is a tube from urinal to the cellar.

Skol is never bought, merely rented.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... reets.html

Hijacking of a very middle class protest: Anarchists cause chaos as 50,000 students take to streets over fees

There's the Mail's spin. Got the publicity-what's the problem?





Nothing compared to the damage they are causing.

Remember all those Mailite comments during Labour rule, banging on about starting a revolution, riots on the streets etc? Never got round to it did they? Those armchairs must've been too comfy. Six months into a Tory Government and at least people who have a grievance walk the talk. (Pointless referring to the Government as Coalition anymore. And the Liberal Democrats are neither liberal nor democratic).

Unfortunatly, a minority of idiots have damaged the cause of a relevent and peaceful protest.

Wish someone would deport these anarchist morons to The Sudan or some other unpleasent place so they can experience the law free, anything goes 'society' they appear so fond of.

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'Because we've reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us'

The Poll Tax rioters didn't damage the cause back in 1990 and that was far, far worse.Peaceful protests are rarely effective. If last night is the worst public unrest this Government has in the next 5 years they'll be in for an easy ride.

I didn't see the protest as being 'middle class' at all

I do wonder if the protest would have generated more than an inch of news coverage or a second on the nightly news bulletins had it not been for the violence. I don't mean to condone violence, but the absurdly Westminster-led nature of political news coverage in England has its part to play in people resorting to violence to get some attention.

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"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth."
Voltaire