On a recent holiday to France, a few friends and myself found our way to the sanctuary of a local bar. Beleaguered and ravished we struggled to the bar for a pint of the amber nectar, but our request appeared to have been lost in translation, stuttering to find suitable English our new French friend expressed through hand gestures that the did not have pint glasses in his pub, and served what he called 'demi's', to you and I, half pints. You see, in Britain you may be belittled for drinking a 'demi' on a night out with your fellow drunkards, where as in France, 'demi's' are a way of life.

There is no stigma around getting drunk here, unlike some in Britain, the French tend to drink for the pleasure and the taste, rather than with the express intention of getting drunk.

Caring not for this way of life, my friend came up with a superb piece of modern philosophy; we could buy two 'demi's' at the same time and end up with the equivalent of one Pint. Hoorah, a solution to our predicament, and a few dozen 'demi's' and 60 euros later we found ourselves in a drunken squalor.

Dazed and confused and banging out a slurred chorus of Delilah we found ourselves encircling our comrade who was in the process of completing 20 press-ups on the floor, with the promise of a double 'demi' on completion. It was now as I looked round at the horror-struck faces of the surrounding clientele, that I saw the true repulsion of our actions. How could culture be so different across 22 miles of sea? Its simple, it starts with education from an early age.

Not only in France, but also across most of continental Europe, it is not uncommon to see young children being given a sip of wine to introduce them to the flavour, and learn how to enjoy the taste. So children here grow up with wine as a normal part of life. This is not the case in Britain. If a family go to a restaurant, most children up until around 12 will drink a soft drink, and are taught to see alcohol as a substance that only causes harm and are discouraged from drinking. Yet when youngsters hit their teens they seem to be driven towards alcohol, now if they went for a meal, their parent may be persuaded to let them have an alcoholic drink.

Here's our problem. The drink of choice for this age range would be an alco-pop. Disguised as soft drinks, the taste masks the liver destroying substance it contains. The teen is hooked and quickly the craze spreads, and a new conveyor belt of alcoholism is produced by Britain. Teenagers are only taught of the negatives of alcohol, and how it is damaging to you, where as our continental neighbours are taught of its qualities and learn to appreciate its taste and culture. This leads to the rebellious actions against society, which sees clans of nocturnal 'Chavs' and 'Chavettes' coming out to terrorise the public, inebriated off two litre bottles of White Lightening.

But how can we criticise these youngsters when they look around and see the British Yob Culture in full swing. We no longer see this as a problem. We don't seek to quash this culture, but simply extend it to round the clock drinking, with the help of money grabbing Labour big-wigs, who can't smell the festering vomit and stale alcohol through their tender metropolitan noses, but rather the sweet scent of green, wafting in by the bucket load, as landlords face an increased license fee and a rise in alcohol duty tax. How will this money be spent? Answer-'within the NHS'.

Maybe a bigger help for the floundering, under-equipped NHS would be a decrease in opening hours of pubs and an educational programme for youngsters that can teach them the benefits of drinking in moderation and how fun can be had without the aide of alcohol. Yet the government feels that if you throw enough money at a problem it will sort itself out.

Working in a local bar I am fortunate enough to see the effects that alcohol can have on someone. However, I have now realised the scope on which alcohol effects the NHS, and non-drink inflicted patients who seek to use the services that their tax pays for.

Tidying up after a shift in the pub at around Midnight I cut my hand badly on a piece of glass. Requiring stitches I made the 50-mile round trip to the local A&E, where the waiting room was like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Three hours I waited as an understaffed team saw to bloodsplattered drunk after drunk unaware of where they were and what had happened to them.

An unfortunate fact states that around 40%* of A&E admissions are alcohol-related. Between midnight and 5am that figure rises to 70%. The study by the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit shows 17 million working days are lost to hangovers and drink-related illness each year. The annual cost to employers is estimated to be £6.4 billion while the cost to the NHS is in the region of £1.7bn. Billions more are spent clearing up alcohol-related crime and social problems. In addition, alcohol-related problems are responsible for 22,000 premature deaths each year. Yet public battles with alcoholism by high-status individuals such as Charles Kennedy are viewed in humour rather than with the serious manner in which it deserves.

Statistics like these could be reduced and avoided with intervention from the government, however with pubs and clubs now open around the clock and a clueless youth growing up on alco-pops and cider, it seems like the stats are only going to get larger before a fat-cat superhero will save us all from wallowing in our own pools of vomit. It seems that our governments policy of hiding behind figures, could come back to bite them in their heftily cushioned backsides as these figures grow and waiting times increase as the cue for liver specialists gets out of hand.

Britain will not turn into a cultured haven overnight with the changing laws. It is my view that its drinking troubles and the figures above will simply escalate, especially with the absent education of today's youth. We need to address this problem before we become a nation of penniless drunkards, working to earn money to buy their next drink.