Alcohol & domestic abuse

With the World Cup starting soon, there is concern that alcohol related domestic violence will increase.

People are right to be concerned, particularly those spouses and partners who have previous experience of abuse from people they share a home with. The problem is normally confined to men and need not involve physical violence. During the football, emotions can run high particularly if supported teams are not playing well or are losing.

I have spent twenty-five years as a tenant in pubs where football matches and indeed England rugby matches have been shown live and can testify to the effect of alcohol on the mood of customers. Not all people become violent, indeed some become quieter, but in the main inhibition is lost and drinkers become more voluble and lose a sense of civility. Bad language increases and disappointment can easily lead to outrage. In the bar, excess anger and frustration is taken out on tables and chairs with heavy thumping, but in the home it is easy to see that it can lead to domestic violence, particularly if the partner is unsympathetic to the supported team or indeed to football generally.

People must understand that alcohol is one of the most pernicious drugs readily available to the public. Its tolerance in society, compared with other drugs, is due to a historic and cultural affinity with drinking a natural and pleasant stimulus. The problem through the ages is drinking to excess. As I have said in a previous blog, bad behaviour through drink must be made socially unacceptable. People who over indulge must be routinely treated as pariahs and ostracized. Drunk and disorderly people should be named and shamed. Wife beaters must be treated for what they are- criminals. To my mind, they should receive the same treatment as they hand out; they should be whipped until they cry for mercy from their watching spouse.
If this is outlawed because they have 'Human Rights' then the law should be changed.