Alexander Chancellor

The elderly are society’s new baddies

Now that the young are turning tee-total, the best hope for the survival of heavy drinking lies with the old

issue 21 February 2015

The gulf in understanding between the old and the young has widened with the news that the young are beginning to turn teetotal. If there was one thing that the old thought they knew about the young, it was that they drank too much. British youth led the world in its enthusiasm for alcohol. Our cities swarmed with loutish binge drinkers. Yet now, all of a sudden, we learn that abstinence is becoming fashionable. The number of people under 25 who don’t touch a drop has increased by 40 per cent in eight years. More than a quarter of people in this age group now don’t drink anything at all. What is going on?

The conditions for heavy drinking would seem to be perfect: there is economic hardship and a generally gloomy outlook on most fronts. It can seldom have been more tempting to seek oblivion in alcohol. Yet the financial crash of 2008 seems to have had the opposite effect.

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