Herald, UK

Scotland is a 'nation of drunks' says expert

RAYMOND DUNCAN: Exclusive

SCOTS were accused yesterday by a leading medical expert of failing to face up to the reality of the country's abuse of alcohol.

Dr W Stuart Hislop, a consultant gastroenterologist, said the national psyche indulges in the escapism of Rab C Nesbitt or the Tartan Army.

He said there was a misplaced belief that their activities were a credit to our country, but we should not be portraying ourselves to the world as a nation of drunks.

The consultant at Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital said that in considering Scotland's problems with drink "it might be appropriate to consider the nation itself to be like an alcoholic".

His comments come as studies suggest the number of annual deaths in Scotland linked to alcohol is currently running at around three times the rate of drugs fatalities, but the hidden toll comes with deaths from drink-related conditions.

These include cirrhosis of the liver and ischaemic heart disease, and from deaths by accidents caused by drink, often on the road or in violent attacks on the street.

A study last year from the alcohol and research centre at the City Hospital in Edinburgh showed the number of Scots dying from alcohol-related liver disease had risen by more than a third between 1996 and 1999. It revealed that 315 men and 164 women died from the condition in 1996, but three years later this had risen to 426 for men and 212 for women.

Figures in 1999 also suggested there were 1149 deaths in Scotland directly linked to alcohol, compared with 340 involving illicit drugs.

According to the most recent statistics published by the Registrar General for Scotland, deaths of men and women from liver conditions had risen by 125% and 87% since 1989.

Dr Hislop warned that alcohol-related health problems would place an increasingly intolerable burden on an already overstretched NHS unless liberal attitudes towards its availability and tolerance of its abuse were reversed.

In a response to a Scottish Executive consultation document on a plan for action on alcohol misuse, he claimed that almost every previous political administration had been "in denial" about the severity of the problem and had repeatedly avoided adequate measures to tackle it. "Indeed certain initiatives taken in a misguided attempt to improve matters, such as the Clayson 'reforms' of the early 70s, have had precisely the opposite effect in terms of healthcare."

Dr Hislop said that it appeared that those in authority were finally aware of the consequences of alcohol excess in Scotland. "The Scottish Executive must understand that all its initiatives to provide new services, cut waiting times, improve conditions in our hospitals and deal with winter pressures, will founder if it does not tackle the problem of alcohol seriously and without delay."

In its response to the executive's consultation exercise, the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents claimed the Scots had a worldwide reputation for "hitting the bottle" and maintained that this "celebration of a hard-drinking reputation" should be condemned. The association said there was a strong argument for the appointment of an

"alcohol czar" to improve co-ordination at national level.

However, last night Professor David McCrone, professor of sociology at Edinburgh University, said the problem of alcohol was much more to do with historic, cultural and socio-economic issues than "national psyche" and it was linked with aspects of masculine culture.

He said it was too easy to reach for stereotypes, and added: "Scots are no more escapist in their culture than anybody else. In fact, some people would say we are too dour and realistic and not escapist enough."

Professor McCrone said that Dr Hislop was missing the irony of Rab C Nesbitt and the "playfulness" of the Tartan Army, "a phenomenon that goes out to enjoy itself without doing any harm to anybody."

But the Rev Erik Cramb, national co-ordinator of Scottish Churches Industrial Mission, said historically Scotland had "dreadfully abused" drink. He was particularly concerned about the current situation where young women were drinking more. "Take the old hen night in Glasgow with women dressed in daft clothes and beating pots and pans. Now a hen night is a weekend in Amsterdam and going daft."

Leader

-July 17th

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Answers

So, if we use Philip Morris' logic, the Scots' love o' the vine is a cost effective population control mechanism, right?

Dan V.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001