Apparently, in a drive to crack down on underage drinking, the police are using youngsters to incriminate pub landlords.
The kids are chosen because they're 18+ but look younger, and the routine is to get them to go into bars, ask for drinks, and then see if the bar staff ask for ID. If they're not asked for ID, presumably the landlord is prosecuted/loses his licence.

What do you think? I guess under-age drinking has to be tackled, but what do you think about the use of kids as 'agents provocateurs'?

all this about under age drinking gets on my tits..

Now come on be honest who on here DIDN'T go underaged drinking??

They've always done it. In both pubs and off-licences etc.
I have no problem with it if it has the desired effect.

Of course everybody did it in my day, and I'm sure my kids will be no different.

It's probably better if they're getting pissed in pubs as it'll mean they're not causing chaos on the streets. I'd prefer they weren't in the same pub as me mind!

I would guess that most drink-related problems involve over-age drinkers, though.

But apart from that, I think crime-prevention methods that use people to trap each another are pretty dodgy. This is similar to the question someone posted the other day (ADG?) about whether it's acceptable to report your neighbours for dropping litter.

the more 16-17 year old pubs for me to perv on the better i say.

and if they're with their girlfriends there'll be something for me to perv on too!

It's not the police, it's Trading Standards who organise it.

I feel really sorry for the youth of today. They'll have no idea how to handle drink, and on their 18th birthday they'll be shit-faced with all sorts of terrible consequences.

I used to get served in Murray Street offy from the age of 14. We would go to the Burn Valley/Camerons field/wherever with our cans, get a bit drunk then go home. There were also pubs/social clubs in the town that would happily serve underagers provided they kept their necks wound in. Paradise Alley used to be like a youth club some nights.

The point is that me and my mates had a gradual exposure to drink, which meant by the time we were 18 there was no real novelty to it.

When I was in the supermarket today, there were a load of signs up about 'challenge 25' - if you look under 25 and you're buying drink you get asked for ID. What chance have younguns got of a crafty bottle of 20/20 unless they nick it?

And pubs are just as bad. A couple of years ago I went out for a night out in Birmingham with my cousin who was 19 at the time. Him and all his mates took ID out with them as a matter of routine as everywhere we went they were asked for ID.

Rather than turning drink into some kind of evil which everyone must be protected from, why not try to emulate other parts of Europe, where they don't make such a big deal of it? If you make something taboo it will only become more desirable to younguns, and they are more likely to go overboard.

Dont know about that, the same kind of things could be said about drugs, my local has cocaine available by the line. If you were a young'un with two quid left and couldn't afford a pint but could buy a line of coke cut up on the hand dryer in the bogs what would you fancy.
Its effin scairy.

Drugs have been widely available for a long time, but obviously its easier to police drinking. It's still scary mind - an ecstasy pill used to cost £15 or thereabouts in the early 1990s, and now I've heard they go for a couple of quid.

It's simple. They daren't tax you any more so they fine you instead. For anything.