At last, a good news (?)

'A third of pubs' to open longer It was time to give a chance to the British population to learn how to drink, if not less (see below), at least in the continental style: i.e. in a civilised way around a table. ;o )

The question is: will they learn quickly enough?

"DOES THE REST OF EUROPE REALLY DRINK LESS THAN US? No, France and several other countries drink more alcohol per head. Historically the heaviest drinking countries were the wine producers. For many years, France had one of the highest known levels of alcohol consumption but it has recently stabilised. In the latest figures supplied by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, the UK's alcohol consumption per capita ranked it ninth among selected countries, behind France, but ahead of Australia (23rd) and the US (26th).

However, if present trends continue, the UK will overtake France in a couple of years. And already the UK's teenagers drink more heavily than nearly all their counterparts across Europe. A Datamonitor report found that UK women under 25 drink more than their European counterparts, and by 2009, it's expected to rise another 31% to three times as much as young women in France and Italy." © BBC Girls in Italy are too concerned about calories and their shape.