Drifterwood
Superior Member
I agree fgeorgio, though it is rather girls because they are drunk who are getting raped, and equally by the locals as drunk british guys.
Britons Behaving Badly
- Thread starter Principessa
- Start date
whatireallywant
Sexy Member
It does, with the exception that apparently many of the culprits are well beyond university age. :tongue:
Hey some of us never got to do Spring Break when we WERE that age, so maybe they're trying to make up for lost time? :biggrin1:
Guy-jin
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I liked this one:
Britain must act to stop its drunken teenagers ruining my resort, says Crete mayor | Mail Online
And this one:
Sex, drugs, booze and violence: Welcome to Malia, the 'party' resort serving up a lethal holiday cocktail for young Brits | Mail Online
Some parts of the second article are really disturbing:
The police and government in Malia are kind of pulled at from both sides. Their economy is probably booming from the tourism, but their city is turning into a dump because of these people. They should seriously punish some of these rapes and assaults to send a message, but that would hurt their tourism.
I thought this comment was interesting, too:
Britain must act to stop its drunken teenagers ruining my resort, says Crete mayor | Mail Online
And this one:
Sex, drugs, booze and violence: Welcome to Malia, the 'party' resort serving up a lethal holiday cocktail for young Brits | Mail Online
Some parts of the second article are really disturbing:
The police and government in Malia are kind of pulled at from both sides. Their economy is probably booming from the tourism, but their city is turning into a dump because of these people. They should seriously punish some of these rapes and assaults to send a message, but that would hurt their tourism.
I thought this comment was interesting, too:
StrictlyAvg
Experimental Member
Ahhh, the Daily Mail, that great bastion of unbiased reporting without any agenda WHATSOEVER
I went out to such a place (Magaluf) when I was 19 (a long time ago!) and it wasn't really that much better then (1989). I will say that the Scandinavians also went a bit wild when cheap booze was on offer as it was and is very expensive in those countries, though they tended to just get plastered and have a laugh rather than getting involved in the whole drinkin', fightin' and fuckin' in public do that the Brits seem to go in for with the bad press all that generates. I quickly tired of the whole going out to the loudest bar possible thing - which discourages conversation and leaves you with only one thing to do - drink copiously. I don't know where the whole "drink to get utterly plastered" mentality comes from though - interviews on the UK radio this week bore out that the mentality is to get as shitfaced as possible on a night out in order to enjoy it. The cheaper the better - no perception that alcoholic drinks have to taste good.
I like a drink - microbrew ales, decent wines, single malt scotches, etc and don't want to be penalised for the actions of the irresponsible when it's clear (to me at least) that it's a cultural malfunction - one the whole island seems to suffer from unfortunately.
All that being said, I still don't believe to this day that jacking up the prices is going to solve these issues though. All that ratcheting up bar prices will do is encourage "front loading" i.e. getting tanked up on booze bought from cheaper sources before going out. All that trying to catch this trap by taxing shop-bought booze to the hilt is going to do is encourage smuggling of drinks from our cheaper neighbouring countries. And penalise me (grrr). Already most of the UK's cheap sources of booze are from the very countries where the least drink related tomfoolery happens among the locals (France and Spain particularly from a UK perspective), but most places in Europe are cheaper than the UK and don't have the same social problems from alcohol we do.
Generally, bars made for locals in countries abroad are social in that people go there to talk rather than be blasted with 105dB music and encourage "vertical drinking". To be fair, most pubs in the UK are like that and are set up as social meeting places. There's only a relative few in town centres that cater for the excesses we're talking about here but the concentrations of trouble are notable in this environment. But even the loud bars abroad (I'm talking away from the Playa del Brit here, e.g. downtown Barcelona etc) aren't just places people go to drink till they puke and fall down then wake up in casualty, only to come back and boast about the great night out and show off the bruises and the hospital discharge papers etc.
The Med countries indulge in some very loud and boisterous festivals (particularly Spain) where people are just allowed to let their hair down and have a good ol' time - albeit often doing some extremely dangerous things with fireworks, bulls, motorbikes or whatever the theme of the festival happens to be. They just seem to generally keep the mood happy and be able to let go without it spilling over into a riot. I couldn't see anything like these fiestas being allowed in the UK (the USA authorities would be similarly unamused mind you). I personally find the UK over regulated, and I don't know whether the tourists from hell are an over-reaction to over-regulation perhaps???
It's not strictly an age related thing either - I went to France on an exchange visit a few years back and the kids were getting watered down Ricard and a small glass of wine with their meals at about ten years old. Yet by the same token it was not seen as "cool" to go raid the drinks cabinet and disappear off to get blottoed in the local park either. This is the culture shift that has to go and I don't have answers for that other than to move out of the UK.
But personally I find myself much more at home in cultures where they've less of a nanny state culture. If people want yet more regulations they can always move to bloody Switzerland where everything works like clockwork - at a price (and not just a monetary one)!
I went out to such a place (Magaluf) when I was 19 (a long time ago!) and it wasn't really that much better then (1989). I will say that the Scandinavians also went a bit wild when cheap booze was on offer as it was and is very expensive in those countries, though they tended to just get plastered and have a laugh rather than getting involved in the whole drinkin', fightin' and fuckin' in public do that the Brits seem to go in for with the bad press all that generates. I quickly tired of the whole going out to the loudest bar possible thing - which discourages conversation and leaves you with only one thing to do - drink copiously. I don't know where the whole "drink to get utterly plastered" mentality comes from though - interviews on the UK radio this week bore out that the mentality is to get as shitfaced as possible on a night out in order to enjoy it. The cheaper the better - no perception that alcoholic drinks have to taste good.
I like a drink - microbrew ales, decent wines, single malt scotches, etc and don't want to be penalised for the actions of the irresponsible when it's clear (to me at least) that it's a cultural malfunction - one the whole island seems to suffer from unfortunately.
All that being said, I still don't believe to this day that jacking up the prices is going to solve these issues though. All that ratcheting up bar prices will do is encourage "front loading" i.e. getting tanked up on booze bought from cheaper sources before going out. All that trying to catch this trap by taxing shop-bought booze to the hilt is going to do is encourage smuggling of drinks from our cheaper neighbouring countries. And penalise me (grrr). Already most of the UK's cheap sources of booze are from the very countries where the least drink related tomfoolery happens among the locals (France and Spain particularly from a UK perspective), but most places in Europe are cheaper than the UK and don't have the same social problems from alcohol we do.
Generally, bars made for locals in countries abroad are social in that people go there to talk rather than be blasted with 105dB music and encourage "vertical drinking". To be fair, most pubs in the UK are like that and are set up as social meeting places. There's only a relative few in town centres that cater for the excesses we're talking about here but the concentrations of trouble are notable in this environment. But even the loud bars abroad (I'm talking away from the Playa del Brit here, e.g. downtown Barcelona etc) aren't just places people go to drink till they puke and fall down then wake up in casualty, only to come back and boast about the great night out and show off the bruises and the hospital discharge papers etc.
The Med countries indulge in some very loud and boisterous festivals (particularly Spain) where people are just allowed to let their hair down and have a good ol' time - albeit often doing some extremely dangerous things with fireworks, bulls, motorbikes or whatever the theme of the festival happens to be. They just seem to generally keep the mood happy and be able to let go without it spilling over into a riot. I couldn't see anything like these fiestas being allowed in the UK (the USA authorities would be similarly unamused mind you). I personally find the UK over regulated, and I don't know whether the tourists from hell are an over-reaction to over-regulation perhaps???
It's not strictly an age related thing either - I went to France on an exchange visit a few years back and the kids were getting watered down Ricard and a small glass of wine with their meals at about ten years old. Yet by the same token it was not seen as "cool" to go raid the drinks cabinet and disappear off to get blottoed in the local park either. This is the culture shift that has to go and I don't have answers for that other than to move out of the UK.
But personally I find myself much more at home in cultures where they've less of a nanny state culture. If people want yet more regulations they can always move to bloody Switzerland where everything works like clockwork - at a price (and not just a monetary one)!
Last edited:
Ldnn
Experimental Member
- Ldnn,
Out of interest did you catch the Radio 4 article about the same subject?
I'd agree that over-regulation in the UK, coupled with holidays which are basically organised bar-crawls, are asking for trouble when people let their hair down. It doesn't help that many of the "holiday reps" have business relationships with the bar owners which incentivises them to get the tourists as pissed as possible.
Still, it does seem a little rich to open up these areas for tourism, promote cheap holidays with the USPs being cheap alcohol & easy sex ... and to expect the tourists to behave perfectly all the same and complain about it afterwards.
It is fairly obvious to anyone who has spent time in France or Spain that in many of the cities, the drinking culture is completely different where you see families able to enjoy a few drinks alongside young local men, or let children stay out until 11 or 12-midnight for a family meal in a local bar. I cannot think of a single city centre where this might be considered the norm in the UK.
Another difficult issue in Muslim states, are women (and men) visiting and wearing clothes which don't adhere to the local dress code, causing them to offend locals. When questioned about this they object simply because "We're tourists"... ridiculous considering the small amount of effort it takes to look into local dress and find something to cover your shoulders without looking too scandelous. It is simply a complete disregard for local tradition and culture.. it's pretty much what the drinking culture demonstrates that instead of trying to learn how the locals enjoy themselves and hopefully becoming more experienced and worldly, they find a loud bar to cram into before drinking until they pass out.
I'd agree that over-regulation in the UK, coupled with holidays which are basically organised bar-crawls, are asking for trouble when people let their hair down. It doesn't help that many of the "holiday reps" have business relationships with the bar owners which incentivises them to get the tourists as pissed as possible.
Still, it does seem a little rich to open up these areas for tourism, promote cheap holidays with the USPs being cheap alcohol & easy sex ... and to expect the tourists to behave perfectly all the same and complain about it afterwards.
It is fairly obvious to anyone who has spent time in France or Spain that in many of the cities, the drinking culture is completely different where you see families able to enjoy a few drinks alongside young local men, or let children stay out until 11 or 12-midnight for a family meal in a local bar. I cannot think of a single city centre where this might be considered the norm in the UK.
Another difficult issue in Muslim states, are women (and men) visiting and wearing clothes which don't adhere to the local dress code, causing them to offend locals. When questioned about this they object simply because "We're tourists"... ridiculous considering the small amount of effort it takes to look into local dress and find something to cover your shoulders without looking too scandelous. It is simply a complete disregard for local tradition and culture.. it's pretty much what the drinking culture demonstrates that instead of trying to learn how the locals enjoy themselves and hopefully becoming more experienced and worldly, they find a loud bar to cram into before drinking until they pass out.
Drifterwood
Superior Member
Some very true words Strictly. Do you remember the old one about Club 18 - 30?
Go out with the Club, and come back in it.
Go out with the Club, and come back in it.
I think you may have something there, Strictly. Loud music and stand-up bars do seem to have more "rowdy" behaviour, but the question is is that because of the stand-up drinking and music or because the people who to bars like that are more likely to be rowdy? You don't often see too much aggro in village pubs but then the mix of people is different.
As I've said in other posts, my parents were fairly liberal in some respects and introduced my sisters and myself to alcohol at home. We've all grown up to be fairly responsible and functional adults. Other kids I grew up with lived in repressive homes where alcohol was demonised. A lot of those kids rebelled when they left home and got away from their parents' influence, drinking too much, doing drugs and ending up with major problems as a result.
Is Britain too much of a nanny state? Everything always seems to be someone else's fault. In countries like France, things are much less regulated and people take responsbility for their own actions. In a lot of parts of Britain, there's very little sense of community; no-one really seems to care about anyone other than themselves or, at best, their immediate family and there's often very little consideration for others. The attitude seems to be "Fuck you, Jack. I'm all right." I grew up in a small community where there was a good mix of ages. I know I make it sound a bit Utopian at times, but, to be honest, when I was a teenager, it was boring. There wasn't much to do and very little opportunity to cut loose, and even if you did, everyone would know about it. If I was caught misbehaving by any adult, they'd discipline me and if I complained about that to my parents later, I'd get it again! Anyway, that's all by the by, but my point is the old saying that anyone can have a child, but it takes a community to raise one. I might not have been too happy when I was growing up due to not having much to do, but it did teach me how to relate to other people, that that you can't expect to get your own way all the time and that actions have consequences.
As I've said in other posts, my parents were fairly liberal in some respects and introduced my sisters and myself to alcohol at home. We've all grown up to be fairly responsible and functional adults. Other kids I grew up with lived in repressive homes where alcohol was demonised. A lot of those kids rebelled when they left home and got away from their parents' influence, drinking too much, doing drugs and ending up with major problems as a result.
Is Britain too much of a nanny state? Everything always seems to be someone else's fault. In countries like France, things are much less regulated and people take responsbility for their own actions. In a lot of parts of Britain, there's very little sense of community; no-one really seems to care about anyone other than themselves or, at best, their immediate family and there's often very little consideration for others. The attitude seems to be "Fuck you, Jack. I'm all right." I grew up in a small community where there was a good mix of ages. I know I make it sound a bit Utopian at times, but, to be honest, when I was a teenager, it was boring. There wasn't much to do and very little opportunity to cut loose, and even if you did, everyone would know about it. If I was caught misbehaving by any adult, they'd discipline me and if I complained about that to my parents later, I'd get it again! Anyway, that's all by the by, but my point is the old saying that anyone can have a child, but it takes a community to raise one. I might not have been too happy when I was growing up due to not having much to do, but it did teach me how to relate to other people, that that you can't expect to get your own way all the time and that actions have consequences.
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