Temperance JRF Drugs and Alcohol Research Programme

Temperance

Its history and impact on current and future alcohol policy Virginia Berridge

This report examines the history of temperance, and how it can inform alcohol policy in the present and future. Published at a time when alcohol consumption has occasioned much public and media debate, the report relates the past to the present by examining the culture of drinking, and how it could be changed. In the past, temperance helped to create a ‘respectable working class’ and an ethos which would now be called ‘ social capital’. The report explores whether this culture can be brought up to date. It also discusses the role of the media,of pressure groups and of local government, the prominence given to women’s’ drinking, the potential for religious influence in a multi cultural society, health messages about alcohol, and alliances between medicine, public health and the police. The report also reviews the political possibilities for alcohol. For the first time for many years alcohol is a political issue, as was temperance. The report looks at whether those with an interest in health should work with the drinks industry, explores the role of international networks of influence and considers how the history of action against tobacco can inform future alcohol strategies. The study concludes that the history of temperance offers many options for the present. It will appeal to all interested in alcohol issues and the development of policy.

JRF Drugs and alcohol research programme

This series of publications examines the social dimensions of drug and alcohol use. It focuses on sensitive issues which are difficult for government-funded research to address, and on the implications for policy and practice. This publication can be provided in alternative formats, such as large print, Braille, audiotape and on disk. Please contact: Communications Department, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP. Tel: 01904 615905. Email: [email protected]

Temperance Its history and impact on current and future alcohol policy

Virginia Berridge The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported this project as part of its programme of research and innovative development projects, which it hopes will be of value to policy makers, practitioners and service users. The facts presented and views expressed in this report are, however, those of the author and not necessarily those of the Foundation.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP Website: www.jrf.org.uk

Virginia Berridge Professor of History and Head, Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.

© London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2005

First published 2005 by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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Further copies of this report, or any other JRF publication, can be obtained either from the JRF website (www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/) or from our distributor, York Publishing Services Ltd, at the above address. Contents

Acknowledgements vi

Summary vii

1 Introduction 1

2 Then and now: background and context 3 Changes over time in the aims and activities of temperance interests 3 Current policy issues: the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy (AHRSE) and the Licensing Act and local government 4

3 How policy interests saw the history of temperance 6

4 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance 8 How to deal with crime and disorder 8 Local government and civic culture 13 Women and a positive role 16 Religion and a multicultural society 18 Better scientific messages 21 Education 25

5 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance 28 Political alliances and possibilities 28 Working with industry 31 Learning from other countries 35 Learning from the history of other substances 36

6 Conclusion: implications for policy 37

References 38

Appendix 1: Aims of the project 41

Appendix 2: Historical literature review 42

Appendix 3: Interviews 44 Acknowledgements

This project has been advised by a small provided bibliographic ideas and my particular committee consisting of Dr Betsy Thom of thanks go to Dr Ron Roizen who provided Middlesex University, Andrew McNeill of the many excellent suggestions from the US Institute of Alcohol Studies and Charlie Lloyd of perspective. I am grateful to Professor Griffith the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Their input Edwards for the ‘Dreadnought’ quote. I am has been valued and the report would have particularly grateful to Dr John Greenaway been the poorer without it. whose book on the politics of alcohol since 1830 Suzanne Taylor of the Centre for History in provides an unrivalled analysis of the Public Health searched for the historical complexities of licensing as a political issue in literature and initiated me in the ways of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. EndNote, and my thanks are due to her. The full Dr Greenaway gave a talk to the Joseph literature database which formed the historical Rowntree Foundation funded drug and alcohol basis of the project can now be accessed by seminar we run at the London School of application to the Centre for History in Public Hygiene and Tropical Medicine which was also Health at the London School of Hygiene and valuable for the purposes of this project. I gave a Tropical Medicine at www.lshtm.ac.uk/history talk based on the draft report at the AGM of the or through the library of the Institute of Alcohol National United Temperance Council and at the Studies. Prevention Research Center University of Our thanks are due to the librarians of the California at Berkeley and I am grateful to both Institute of Alcohol Studies, the London School audiences for their comments. of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the British This report was written and revised in the Library, Senate House Library and the Wellcome first half of 2005 and the interviews were Library for the History and Understanding of completed at the end of 2004. Comments on the Medicine. Members of the email network of the policy situation mostly relate to that time. Alcohol and Temperance History Group

vi Summary

•Temperance has the image of a rigid and currently underused by comparison with moralistic movement which aimed at total the position religion held in relation to abstinence and with little relevance to the drink in the past. present. • Scientific messages are unclear and alliances •Temperance in fact had a more varied with criminal justice interests could be more agenda, including the idea of progressive firmly established. An ‘advocacy coalition’ restriction and modification of drinking. could have greater impact.

•Temperance history shows that the issue of • Better public messages are needed, as in the cultural change is central. Temperance nineteenth century. These could involve a helped change drinking culture but also range of drinking options, including built on more general social change. Such abstinence. cultural change can be achieved in society • Political division on the drink issue may through avenues like the media, which have develop through licensing as it did in the changed their attitude to alcohol. nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There • The local dimension was important for will be, and are, opportunities for external temperance; current licensing reform offers coalitions to influence developments. local government and local action •Temperance interests in the past worked opportunities which temperance reformers with sections of the drinks trade to achieve fought for in the 1880s. moderate reform, and new alliances might •Women’s changed role in society and be possible in the present, given the greater independence has been under- or changing role of the industry. misused in the current debate on alcohol by • The history of allied policy areas like comparison with women’s past role in smoking, where policy has moved through relation to alcohol misuse. different stages and cultural change has • The role of religion in achieving cultural been achieved, offers a model for possible change in a multicultural society is also change for alcohol.

vii

1 Introduction

If someone refuses a drink at a party, they The detailed aims of the project are set out in usually feel obliged to preface the refusal with a Appendix 1 at the end of the report. The overall disclaimer: ‘Of course, I’m not teetotal, you aim was to look at the relevance of the history of know’. Temperance does not have a popular temperance to present-day alcohol policy. The image in the early twenty-first century. Most methods used were of two sorts: a literature people associate it with outdated attitudes, rigid review of published historical analyses of moralism, narrow religion and an temperance; and a series of interviews with key uncompromising attitude towards the actors and opinion formers in the present, consumption of drink. Temperance parties with examining their perceptions of temperance and no alcohol, only fruit juice and crisps do not fit their views of current policy. Interviewees well with the twenty-first-century lifestyle. ranged from civil servants involved with Temperance is a joke. When I mentioned to government alcohol strategy and licensing colleagues and others that I was working on the reform to an imam in Camden, representatives relevance of temperance to the present, many of alcohol campaign organisations and medical were dismissive. It would not take long to do interests and a journalist. The aim was to get a the study, they said, because temperance had no broad cross-section of those with current relevance. People now would not adopt a non- interests in alcohol policy. These interviews are drinking way of life or be attracted by evenings used, with permission, in direct quotation in the spent delivering tracts. But this lack of relevance report and have also been used to inform the did not prove to be the case. Although comments made about the past and the present. temperance has the image of an outdated creed, The methods are outlined further in Appendices it was in fact a movement with a variety of aims. 2 and 3. The report provides a brief bibliography Abstinence was not its only aim and it helped of key sources referred to, but a fuller listing change the culture of drinking in the nineteenth and analysis is also available (see Appendix 2). century. It built what would now be called The basic argument of this report is that the ‘social capital’. It was a movement which was ‘real history’ of temperance offers many models politically important: it was closely tied to the for the present, and that politicians, scientists fortunes of the main political parties in the and the drinks industry might do well to look at nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. that history more closely, as some indeed are As the study proceeded, the current politics beginning to do. It also offers examples of of alcohol became more prominent. Alcohol missed opportunities which should be seriously consumption and alcohol policy were high considered. The rest of the report makes that profile in the British news media and the argument in more depth. political parties began to debate drink and the The report begins by outlining the current nation’s drinking culture in a way which policy context and the historical background. It evoked the late nineteenth century. The lessons discusses the ways in which the research found of temperance, its alliances and also its failures that the history of temperance had already did not seem so irrelevant after all, as the rest of informed the views of some key people in the this report sets out to argue. policy field. It then focuses on two key areas:

1 Temperance

changing the culture of drinking and the political possibilities in the present can also be political dimensions of the alcohol issue. In both informed by the past. The report stresses the these major sections of the report, there are political advantages in alcohol policy; discusses suggestions of how the past may inform the the controversial question of working with the present. Temperance achieved cultural change drinks industry; sees a role for international through various levers which could be built alliances in particular in Europe; and shows upon now – among them the role of women; how the history of other substances and of religion; scientific messages and alliances with cultural change can also offer models for criminal justice interests; using education and alcohol. The final section of the report sums up the media; and local government action. The the possibilities for the present and the future.

2 2 Then and now: background and context

Two areas frame this report: 1830s to the end of the century, there were different models of action. Greenaway (2003, • the changes over time in the aims and pp. 9–19) identifies six models which offered activities of temperance interests solutions to the ‘drink problem’ as seen at the • the current policy issues: the Alcohol time. Of these six, four were related to the Harm Reduction Strategy for England temperance movement. These were: (AHRSE) and the Licensing Act and local • ‘Moral suasion’. The activity of the state government. should be limited and a crusade should aim to reform the lives of individuals. Changes over time in the aims and • Intemperance and a faulty social order. Drink activities of temperance interests should be regulated by the state so that People had drunk alcohol in British society since working men could achieve a measure of time immemorial but it was not until the independence. nineteenth century that such consumption was • Prohibition. Drink was seen as a problem seen as a problem in a consistent way. In the requiring public and political rather than context of an industrialising society which private and personal reforms. Drink was needed adaptable, time-aware workers, sobriety seen as a dangerous drug and the duty of became a virtue. Governments increasingly saw the state was to suppress it. drinking as an area with which they should engage. Alcohol consumption was rising and • Progressive temperance restriction. This peaked in the 1870s (Wilson, 1940, p. 335). position sought a halfway house between Temperance movements emerged which sought traditional licensing regulation and the to restrict the use of drink in various ways. dogma of prohibitionists through various Temperance is often equated in present-day mechanisms such as heavier or commentary with an attitude of prohibition to differential taxation or restriction of hours the consumption of drink. But, even in its of opening. heyday in the nineteenth century, temperance By the last decades of the nineteenth century, was never a monolithic movement. The early temperance was allied with politics at the meaning of temperance was simply that of anti- national level through the alliance with the spirits; the first temperance supporters in the Liberal Party, while the drinks trade was early nineteenth century were opposed to the increasingly associated with the Conservatives. drinking of spirits but not to that of beer. The local dimension of political activity was Temperance later changed its stance to one of important and the Permissive Bill proposed that total abstinence and the majority of its support different localities could vote on whether they came from working-class interests. But even wanted prohibition. This bill was introduced within this classic phase of temperance from the and reintroduced in Parliament without success

3 Temperance

from the 1860s. Temperance repositioned itself alliance’ involving medical and other scientists. through the connection with organised religion, There has been the development of an ‘alcohol nonconformity and the Church of England. It misuse lobby’ which has increasingly seen itself also became part of the ‘condition of England’ in opposition to the interests of the drinks question through the researches of social industry. Temperance has been associated with reformers like Charles Booth and Joseph and health concerns and with the way in which Seebohm Rowntree. Prohibition gave place to contemporary public health focuses on ‘single moderate reform and disinterested pub issues’ like smoking or overeating. Drink as a management, which sought to run pubs and single issue fits into those concerns. To some refreshment facilities which offered drink and extent the earlier debates on temperance as other refreshment in salubrious settings and ‘moderation’ have revived through the with no financial incentives for the seller. The discussions of moderate drinking and its effects. role of medical science became increasingly important and excessive drinking became Current policy issues: the Alcohol Harm connected with theories of disease and Reduction Strategy (AHRSE) and the treatment. Women’s drinking was seen as a Licensing Act and local government particular problem at the time, at the turn of the century, when the ‘future of the race’ was of Alongside this résumé of history (which is growing concern. discussed further in the following sections), During the First World War, the ‘drink there run two current policy issues which have problem’ became part of the drive for ‘national given alcohol matters a high current profile. efficiency’ and what could be considered an overall national strategy was put in place for the The Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy first time. Pub closing hours (the afternoon This long-awaited strategy was published in closure) were enforced and nationalisation of March 2004 after preparatory work had started the drinks trade was considered. State purchase in the Department of Health some six years of the trade was enforced in areas like Carlisle previously. The final strategy was produced and Gretna and a Central Control Board from the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit with an regulated the rest of the trade. But this model of introduction by the Prime Minister; an interim central control was not maintained after the war. analytical report was published in 2003 which The interwar years were a time when contained the ‘evidence base’ for the temperance sentiment ebbed and new leisure conclusions. The publication of the strategy was activities such as sport and cinema-going a considerable achievement given the history of provided alternative models of entertainment such exercises. A previous attempt, initiated outside the pub. In the years after the Second under the Labour government of the 1970s, to World War, temperance in the sense of a formal develop a cross-governmental alcohol strategy movement on the nineteenth-century model was never published and only saw the light of was almost extinct. However, commentators day through publication in Finland. have drawn attention to a ‘neo-temperance Although the publication of the 2004

4 Then and now: background and context

strategy was welcomed, its content also carry on licensable activities is contained in a attracted considerable criticism from the public single premises licence or club premises health/medical lobby, which saw it as certificate, valid for the life of the premises. A dominated by the interests of the drinks personal licence is valid for ten years. industry. Medical interests criticised the focus Applications, if granted, will be effective from on youth ‘binge drinking’ to the exclusion of November 2005. other forms of harmful drinking, the failure to The Act has attracted criticism on a number consider whole population approaches and the of grounds. Its policy location in the neglect of ‘high impact’ interventions such as Department of Culture, Media and Sport increased taxation. (DCMS) after an initial location within the Nevertheless, the strategy is currently being Home Office underlined the focus on the needs implemented through the National Treatment of tourism and trade and the aim of introducing Agency and through emphasis on better a European-style café culture. It liberalised enforcement of laws relating to under-age hours of opening and offered the option of 24- drinking, among other activities. hour licensing; licences had to be granted unless a ‘relevant representation’ was made by an The Licensing Act 2003 and local government ‘interested party’. After pressure it was agreed The Licensing Act, operational in 2005, has that it would be possible for licensing changed the current alcohol, entertainment and committees to consider the cumulative impact late-night refreshment licensing schemes into a of the opening of licensed premises in a single licensing system to be managed by local particular ‘stress area’. The impending authorities rather than, as previously, by implementation of this Act lay behind the many magistrates. Licensing committees of local media stories in the summer of 2004 about councillors consider licensing objectives such as youth ‘binge drinking’ in city centres and the the prevention of crime and disorder, public worries of local police forces that they would be safety and the protection of children from harm unable to cope with public disorder which when looking at an application. Permission to could result.

5 3 How policy interests saw the history of temperance

Alcohol issues were high priority during the Many people directly involved in policy period of this project, and the above policy were also aware of this history. Andrew issues were central. What role did views of the Cunningham, the civil servant in charge of the history of temperance play in those policy Licensing Bill in the DCMS, spoke of how the processes? This section draws on both the history of licensing legislation and the interviews for the project and some published temperance agitation round licensing had commentary. The conventional expectation informed the proposed changes. His would be that temperance and its associations department had wanted to get away from a with restriction would be used in the debates as ‘paternalistic’ past which, by implication, was a convenient badge with which to brand associated with temperance and its restrictive opponents. Temperance, in short, could be used attitude towards the availability of drink. Simon in a pejorative way, standing for an outmoded Milton, leader of Westminster Council, is a past, for fuddy-duddy and killjoy attitudes to historian by training to whom knowledge of the drink. Some people did talk about temperance local politics of temperance was significant. The in this way. Jean Coussins of the Portman current ‘politics of drink’ at the local level in Group, referring to temperance in Sweden, Westminster had led to the change of leadership talked of ‘a regime to control the working class which brought him to power. Knowledge of the and to control women … They were not able to history of temperance had informed the current bear the idea of working people enjoying policy issues in a sophisticated sense. themselves’ (interview with Jean Coussins). Temperance and its history had been there in But several of the project interviewees were the background. aware of the variety and range of options in the However, temperance history was obviously temperance past and their relevance to the not the main animating force behind the policy present. Not surprisingly, some of these changes. Yet as this project progressed the commentators came from within the importance of that history for current and future temperance movement or its successors. strategies became clearer. The history set out Andrew McNeill of the Institute of Alcohol themes and strategies which could be built on in Studies saw many parallels between the the present; and it also pointed to possible agendas of temperance in the past and the missed opportunities for effective action in the present-day interests of alcohol policy. past. The report which follows sets out this agenda based on history. It argues that many of There’s nothing new … tax, availability, the drinks the current initiatives and mix of policies have bill, policies in the workplace, educating young their antecedents in the past and build, often people about alternatives to alcohol … a lot is unknowingly, on past attempts to moderate similar. It’s the temperance book without the drinking and its associated problems. But it also hymns. argues that the past suggests a richer mix of (Interview with Andrew McNeill) initiatives than is currently in play and

6 How policy interests saw the history of temperance

possibilities currently not employed, and that these too should be considered. The report outlines these possibilities under two main headings:

• changing drinking culture

• political alliances.

Each of these main chapters has subsections which deal with particular aspects of the issue.

7 4 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

The change in drinking culture in present-day How to deal with crime and disorder society is widely recognised. Drink is more The historical context freely available, drinking every day is common, By the early years of the nineteenth century, the and the cultural norms of respectability which issue of excess consumption of alcohol began to used to operate (40 years ago women would not be defined as a social problem. The processes of have bought a drink for themselves in a pub) urbanisation and industrialisation increased the have gone. Getting drunk can be an end in itself, resort of the working class to alcohol, and part of a good night out for many young people. drunkenness was more visible in an urban Concerns about alcohol-fuelled crime and setting than in rural communities. On the other disorder in city centres have risen and in 2004–5 hand, the pub with its warmth and bright lights, as the new licensing legislation came into effect its games, newspapers and company, offered a there were widespread concerns in the media tolerable relief from an otherwise wretched about public disorder (Panorama, 2004). Such a environment. Excessive drinking was, however, situation is reminiscent of the past. This section incompatible with the more disciplined and of the report shows how temperance norms regulated nature of a factory-based workforce helped alter hard drinking culture then, and (Greenaway, 2003, pp. 7–8). how some of those strategies could be adapted Growing social concern was paradoxically for use in the present. It considers the options accompanied by the liberalisation of the law on under six main headings: the sale of drink. The 1830 Beer Act allowed • how to deal with crime and disorder anyone to sell beer (not wines and spirits) on the simple payment of an excise fee of two guineas. • local government and civic culture It established a dual pattern of licensing: full • women and a positive role pubs and new beerhouses. The passage of the Act arose in part from a radical desire to •religion and a multicultural society undermine the oligarchic power of the local • better scientific messages justices and in part from overall laissez-faire principles, ideas of free trade which were so • education. important in the early Victorian period. The For each theme, it first considers the measure had an immediate impact with over historical context and then the contemporary 24,000 licences taken out in the first six months relevance, with a final summing up of key and 21,000 over the next eight years. It was messages. credited by its opponents with contributing to a great increase in intemperance and disorder among the lower classes. Nor did it appear to

8 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

have improved the quality of the outlets. culture grew up. The description given by Nevertheless free trade ideas remained strong Thomas Whittaker, one of the Preston pioneers, into the 1860s. Gladstone’s wine-retailing of his activities during a visit to London in 1837 legislation of 1860 opened up the retail side of give a sense of the interest and enthusiasm: the wine trade by allowing grocers and In London we are going on gloriously … During shopkeepers to take out excise licences for the the last week I have held nine meetings and sale of wine in bottles for consumption off the distributed 2,000 tracts; and large as London is I premises and by giving eating houses the right hope before long there will not be a soul in it who to sell wine with meals. has not heard of teetotalism … On Saturday Free trade in alcohol operated less easily morning, I distributed 400 tracts on the Margate than its advocates had expected, in part for steamer; and in the afternoon, accompanied by economic and structural reasons. Temperance several friends, went to Greenwich. On our way sentiment grew and aimed to change the culture in the steam-boat we preached up abstinence and and practice of drinking. Anti-drink sentiment the consequence was no intoxicating liquors was initially strong among the aristocracy and could be sold, although they cried out ‘brown middle class: this was as an anti-spirits stout, ale and porter’. We held the first teetotal movement in the 1830s, inspired by American meeting ever held in Greenwich Park, and a good example. The movement subsequently one it was. Returning home, I distributed tracts broadened both its membership and its aims. and gave admonitions at the dramshops. Working-class supporters like Joseph Livesey (Whittaker, quoted in Longmate, 1968, p. 84) stressed the need to give up beer as well as spirits. At a temperance meeting on 1 September For those who joined the movement there 1832, seven men of Preston took the pledge as was a set of organisations inculcating sobriety an experiment for a year. The early temperance and abstinence which in turn influenced a wider movement concentrated on ‘moral suasion’, on number in the general population. Harrison has the development of a mass movement which examined the various estimates based on those would lead working men to drop going to the who joined temperance societies or who read pub and take the pledge not to drink. As the temperance newsletters and tracts whose historian Brian Harrison (1971, p. 350) has circulation figures are available. He concludes: written, ‘Teetotalism … flourished on the The general impression conveyed is that by the genuine desire for respectability and self- 1860s there existed an influential and literate reliance which prevailed within the working minority in the country of ‘opinion makers’, class’. numbering well under 100,000 teetotalers. The In its initial ‘moral suasion’ version, the efforts of this minority affected the personal temperance movement concentrated upon habits of at least a million adult teetotalers, and reformation of the individual rather than state probably influenced the conduct of many others intervention. Temperance advocates acted as who did not join teetotal organisations. ‘missionaries’ for the cause and a temperance (Harrison, 1971, p. 308)

9 Temperance

Temperance societies produced newspapers person who took it to abstinence while the long and tracts in their hundreds of thousands. pledge committed the taker to a refusal ever to In addition there were several hundred offer alcoholic drink to guests and visitors thousand child teetotalers in the Band of Hope. (Shiman, 1988, p. 22). Founded in 1847, membership was open to all So temperance developed its own internal children under 16 and based on the simple culture which had mass appeal. But its impact pledge, ‘I do agree that I will not use also came at a time when the general culture of intoxicating liquors as a beverage’. In Leeds the drinking was in flux. Some of this change can be Band was divided into 16 districts and within a attributed to the influence of the temperance few months 4,000 children had been enrolled. In movement itself, but there was also a general 1852, 6,000 children crowded into Exeter Hall in decline in the earlier culture of hard drinking the Strand in London for a meeting. Thousands across the classes. It was no longer acceptable, of children were shut out and the press of as it had been in the eighteenth century, for the numbers stopped the traffic in the Strand, while local squire to fall dead-drunk under the table those inside the hall adopted a formal after a night’s drinking. This decline in presentation to the ten-year-old Prince of Wales consumption became particularly marked (Longmate, 1968, pp. 123–4). towards the end of the nineteenth century. From Although the new teetotal movement had a 1880 to 1914 consumption of beer declined; by strongly working-class element among its 1914 per capita consumption in England and leadership, the movement was also noticeable Wales was no higher than it had been in 1840. for its cross-class support. Nonconformist The latter years of the century were ones of businessmen and Quakers in particular who rising real wages but for the first time this extra had supported the earlier anti-spirits movement spending capacity did not go on drink. John could see the value of a disciplined and sober Burnett (1999, p. 127) comments that ‘The main workforce. Some historians have argued as a reason was not so much the success of the result that support for temperance was a temperance movement or stricter licensing diversion for the respectable working class, the policies as changes in the role of beer in ‘labour aristocracy’. They had failed to obtain working class life’. the vote in the 1840s through the radical New consumer goods and leisure political movement of Chartism and thereafter opportunities were on offer. Heavy drinking turned to movements like temperance which and drunkenness were no longer respectable did not challenge the existing social order so but characteristic only of the lower strata of the dramatically. But temperance was never a working class, the social outcasts. Counter- unified movement. It was constantly, even in attractions to drink were offered – allotments, this period, riven by controversy. For example, parks and playing fields, sports, libraries, there were the divisions between temperance museums and travel. There were physically and societies in the north and the south of England mentally improving alternatives to the pub over whether to take the short or the long (Burnett, 1999, p. 127). pledge. The short pledge simply committed the

10 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

Contemporary relevance Culture is not immutable and the history of This nineteenth-century picture has some drinking shows how different manners and immediately obvious parallels with the present: customs and levels of drinking have prevailed a period of current concern about public at different times. Hard drinking can be a social disorder; the liberalisation of access to drink; a norm across society, as it was in the eighteenth culture of hard drinking across society. century, but that culture can change. Society However, there are also differences. Society now currently shows divergent tendencies – on the has no mass movement focused on individual one hand there is a move towards greater abstinence as a route to working-class hedonism demonstrated by the ‘drink culture’ respectability and advancement. There are still among young people and higher levels of memories of the temperance movement and drinking across many parts of society, but on the interviewees from temperance backgrounds other hand there are tendencies towards greater remembered the culture in its later years. puritanism and social concern. These are During an interview in Portcullis House with demonstrated in punitive measures to control Ross Cranston, the Labour MP who chaired the public behaviour, such as Anti-Social Behaviour All-Party Group on Alcohol Misuse, MPs Orders (ASBOs) and drink control zones, and crowded round us to reminisce about their also to compel drink and drug users into boyhood experiences of temperance. In the past, treatment such as Drug Treatment and Testing future Labour leaders like Arthur Henderson, Orders (DTTOs). Either tendency could prevail Keir Hardie and Philip Snowden gained their or become more dominant: the issue of cultural initial political training through temperance change is important. organisations like the Good Templars, learning History also shows us that the influence of how to control meetings with a training in what would now be considered a ‘pressure democracy and public service. However, there group’, a non-governmental organisation was general agreement, even among (NGO) or activist group, in contemporary temperance supporters, that that sort of mass language, can be a significant force for change. movement and its ethos could in no way be Temperance built up social capital in Victorian recreated in the early twenty-first century. The society and inculcated attitudes of cultural context now is different, although ‘respectability’ which politicians are seeking to politicians do recognise the need for building model in contemporary policy. The recent respect and ‘social capital’ in contemporary history of health activism since the 1970s shows society. a different organisational model to that of The issue of cultural change and how it is temperance: small media-conscious achieved, which is highlighted by the history of organisations, often primarily funded by temperance, is of central importance. The Alcohol government (Action on Smoking and Health, Harm Reduction Strategy recognises that culture ASH, was one early example) rather than the changes over time and that one aim of policy can nineteenth-century mass membership model. be to start to change current behaviour and Like the nineteenth-century organisations, there culture (AHRSE, 2004, pp. 12, 53). are currently many in the field, with Alcohol

11 Temperance

Concern the most prominent. Pressure group The core of nineteenth-century temperance activity is still important. was abstinence from drink and this could be In the nineteenth century temperance highlighted as an option in the present day. literature was important; in recent times the Numbers who do not drink are significant and media is the successor to the ‘information’ these include young people. Fifteen per cent of disseminated in the nineteenth century. The people questioned in a recent Office of National media can be enormously important not only in Statistics survey had not drunk at all in the past defining a public agenda, but also in defining an year (Lader and Goddard, 2004, p. 10). Speaking issue to politicians. Until recently the media at the Civic Trust alcohol conference in 2004, attitude to drink had been more tolerant and David Prout, director of local government liberal than that towards drugs. But the recent policy at the Office of the Deputy Prime concern about localised 24-hour drinking and Minister (ODPM), told the audience that his the drain on police resources has brought a knowledge of the late-night economy came change (Rayner, 2004). Given that this issue will through his au pair. She was a clubber but also a continue throughout 2005 and beyond with the non-drinker. She is not the only one. Yet this introduction of the new Act, the media coverage group of non-drinking young people is never is bound to continue and will have both public acknowledged in any publicity. and potential policy impact. ‘It’s OK not to drink’ could dovetail with a So there are levers here for possible cultural revised moderate drinking message which is change. There are many entrées for a ‘drink discussed below. message’ in popular culture. For example, the novelist Ian Rankin, a former alcohol researcher, To sum up has one of his characters agree to be the •Temperance in its nineteenth-century designated driver when they drink in the bars of version cannot be recreated in the present. Edinburgh. There is also the issue of what level • But the culture of hard drinking can be of drinking is the overall aim. At the present changed, using levers already present in moment, ‘moderation’ is much discussed and is society. the ostensible aim of policy, but what moderation means is increasingly difficult to • The role of the media is of central define. Its opposite concept is ‘binge drinking’: importance. this is also a blurred concept but it is one which •Pressure groups have a role to play. seems to separate out ‘them’ as drinkers as distinct from ‘us’ whose drinking is not • More thought should be given to a varied problematic (more on this below in the section public message – defining moderation on ‘Better scientific messages’). These are not and binge drinking, including abstinence the only models of drinking which are possible as an option and building on the numbers and there could be greater clarity in the field. of people who do not drink.

12 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

Local government and civic culture in the election of 1895 and its temperance content was partly blamed for the defeat The policy changes which have taken place (Shiman, 1988, p. 5). recently place licensing within the control of The temperance organisation which carried local government. Licensing reform and the role forward the case for local prohibition was the of local government were also a key issue in United Kingdom Alliance (UKA). This was temperance history and the present situation founded in Manchester in 1853 to work for offers opportunities which were not open to the prohibition in the UK after a law had been temperance movement but which it fought to passed in Maine in the USA in 1846 prohibiting obtain. the sale of intoxicants. The UKA’s aim was to influence policy rather than to reform The historical context individuals. Its aim was to free people from the Temperance, as is clear from the above tyranny of drink but through the imposition of discussion, had a strong local dimension. This an authoritarian solution. Its answer to the localism developed as the nineteenth century criticism of authoritarianism was the strategy of progressed through attempts to introduce: the local veto, which it adopted in 1857. This • local voting on whether to ban drink idea was that local ratepayers in a parish or similar area could vote to go dry; a two-thirds • municipal ownership of the drinks trade majority would be needed to make the decision • involvement of local government in binding on everyone in the area. This expanded licensing. the idea of prohibition to include localism and democracy (Greenaway, 2003, p. 24). A bill for Local voting on whether to ban drink the local veto, the Permissive Prohibition Bill, developed as a temperance aim later in the was first unsuccessfully introduced in the nineteenth century. ‘Moral suasion’, popular in Commons in 1864, and thereafter was put the movement in the 1830s to the late 1840s, forward annually. Its champion was Sir Wilfred became less important and there were attempts Lawson, the MP who became the parliamentary to curb the sale of drink through the law. In the spokesman of the UKA. In 1872 the organisation 1860s and 1870s, attempts were made both adopted the policy of putting up temperance locally and nationally to introduce prohibition, candidates where existing candidates were but these attempts failed. In the 1870s local weak on prohibition, and in 1878 it agreed to government became increasingly involved with substitute a local option resolution for the drink as battles were fought between Permissive Bill. The relationship of the UKA to temperance reformers and drink interests over national politics will be discussed in Chapter 5 the issue and conditions of licences for local of this report. pubs. The political influence of temperance was This was a period when local politics were recognised by the Liberal Party in 1891 when it important nationally. This localism was at the made local prohibition a part of its Newcastle heart of the changes in the Liberal Party in the Programme. But that programme was defeated 1870s when the Liberal caucus, developed in the

13 Temperance

great cities of the north, saw democracy in terms by Liberals who espoused free trade principles, of the will of the people ‘from below’ to and there was an absence of support from formulate policies which the parliamentary mainstream temperance interests. Twenty years leadership was to implement. Local control or later Chamberlain had not forgotten the rigidity local option was one way in which new political of the prohibitionists, describing the UKA as the sensibilities could be aroused at the local level: greatest obstacle to temperance which Britain local option became an issue for radicals outside had seen (Greenaway, 2003, p. 39). the temperance circles. Drink was seen as a This episode exemplified the local interest in broader radical issue with great potential. the last 30 years of the century in democratising Arguably temperance interests did not fully licensing. In Bruce’s Licensing Bill of 1871, capitalise on this situation. The UKA leadership ratepayers would have been able to help was rigid about its objectives and would magistrates to determine the needs of the entertain little apart from prohibition. The localities. The 1872 Act with its restrictions of leadership rejected any need for initiatives in closing times led to widespread local relation to licensing reform. Lawson’s answer to dissatisfaction with rioting and demonstrations; those who said ‘Bring in a good Licensing Bill’ Gladstone attributed his defeat at the 1874 was ‘let those bring it in who believe in it’ general election to ‘a torrent of gin and beer’. (Greenaway, 2003, p. 41). The local dimensions of licensing were highly The UKA’s intransigence also led to the political issues and in the late 1880s and 1890s it defeat of a second local initiative, the attempt to was the issue of the number of licences, of over- introduce local elected control over drink or to provision, which became central. Licensing bring the trade under municipal control. Joseph reform was proposed by Liberals in 1888 which Cowen, the radical MP for Newcastle, would have given control of licensing to county introduced a bill in 1876 to transfer all licensing councils and local licensing committees. These authority to directly elected boards.This would would have been composed largely of elected undermine the power of the hated magistracy. councillors and would have the powers to Joseph Chamberlain’s proposals in Birmingham reduce licences. Licence fees would be increased went a step further. Chamberlain had already to form a compensation fund and all existing made his mark as mayor of the city by carrying revenues from drink licences would go to the through a programme of ‘gas and water new councils to provide nearly half their total socialism’, the municipalisation of basic utilities. income. But this reform was not carried After studying the Gothenburg system in through, nor a further Conservative initiative Sweden, where companies of citizens owned two years later. and ran the local drinks trade, he proposed a licensing bill which would enable municipalities Contemporary relevance to abandon licences altogether, issue them to the Such local struggles and the emphasis on local highest bidder, or run them directly for the variability and a local solution to the drink issue benefit of the town’s finances. But the bill was have many parallels with the current situation opposed by the Conservatives and the trade and over licensing reform. The Licensing Act 2003,

14 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

by locating licensing within local government, will all work out. What sort of society are we has carried through part of the temperance creating? The industry won’t pick up the pieces – agenda of the 1880s. Local government leaders, the taxpayer and government will … particularly in London and large urban cities, (Interview with Matthew Bennett) have criticised the Act. Their criticisms have In local ‘stress areas’ too, networks of local drawn attention not only to the lack of adequate amenity groups have taken a stand on the issue. funding to carry out the work needed, but also Here is a notice of a typical meeting. to their initial inability to control the overall pattern of licences since the cumulative impact Public meeting Saturday 22 January 2005 … 1.30 of licensing decisions could not be taken into p.m. Trinity United Reform Church, junction of account. The modifications to the regulations Kentish Town Road and Buck Street, NW1 8NJ. under the Act have taken this criticism into 24 hour drinking licences are coming in. Local account. people are complaining that visitors to Camden’s The Act began life in the Home Office but night time ‘entertainment centre’ don’t live here, finally emanated from the DCMS and has been urinate in the streets and cause noise etc. defended from that department’s perspective. Camden Council is washing sick off the The drinks trade is a major employer and pavements at night … Come to the meeting and generator of tourist and other income; the aim is find out what is happening. to introduce a European-style drinking culture (Email sent to author, 2005) which will be attractive to visitors and also meet Such local networks base their arguments on the needs of a younger generation more used to local amenity and public nuisance rather than drinking regularly. Opponents have drawn drink itself. The drink issue has been given an attention to the dangers of ‘binge drinking’ and opportunity to form alliances with other of city centres becoming ‘no go’ areas. networks with a wider basis of support. The Temperance interests or their successors location of licensing within local government have been active in these debates. But other thus offers opportunities. It brings licensing and local networks have also taken an interest in the drink directly into local electoral politics and issue and these are not primarily drink related. some local government leaders have recognised The Civic Trust took a hand in this and helped this. It presents the opportunity for networks of to establish the Open All Hours? network; this local groups and residents’ associations to take has lobbied effectively on drink and civic on drink-related issues as a normal part of their amenity issues. Matthew Bennett, chair of the activities. The use of scrutiny panels within local Open All Hours? network and a Soho government (scrutiny is a device to review restaurateur, commented: executive activity established under new local Lobbying parliament is a sophisticated process government arrangements) enables significant but ordinary people were left out. We had to local input into drink and licensing matters. For protest afterwards … There’s a feeling about anti example, Camden Council has already run a social behaviour, drugs and gambling and how it scrutiny panel whose report brought together

15 Temperance

planning and licensing matters and another • women as ‘innocent victims’ of drinking panel is current examining alcohol in the • women’s drinking as more blameworthy. borough more generally (London Borough of Camden, 2003, 2004). This is at a time, too, when Women were active in the temperance central government politicians are espousing an movement and temperance was one of the agenda of ‘new localism’. The Home Office earliest ways in which women found a role in minister Hazel Blears, in a pamphlet written for public life. Although there were local women’s the Fabian Society, specifically cited the local temperance organisations in the first half of the influence of temperance as one of those nineteenth century, the main influence came historical manifestations of local power which from the United States. The Women’s Christian could be built upon in the present (Blears, 2003). Temperance Union was of international importance, with influence on other national To sum up societies, for example in Australia (Tyrrell, • The changes in licensing law offer an 1983). In the UK, the British Women’s opportunity to build local networks and Temperance Association was set up in 1876 and coalitions in relation to licensing matters. at its height in 1892 had 577 affiliated branches, The relationship of drink to other local with a total of 45,000 members (Shiman, 1988, p. interests strengthens the case. 185). Lady Henry Somerset, its leader at the turn of the century, promoted a ‘Do Everything’ • The involvement of local government in policy which brought temperance women into licensing achieves an aim under allied political issues such as women’s suffrage. discussion in local politics and Such a stance was not to the liking of all: her temperance circles for more than a ‘moderationist’ attitude to licensing caused a century. Despite the deficiencies of the split in the movement and her resignation in current situation and the greater degree of 1903. It was not until the second half of the central government control than in the 1920s that the organisational divisions were nineteenth century, local democratic healed. However, initially such organisations involvement offers great opportunities for were important in moving women out of their those wishing to influence alcohol issues domestic world into acceptable public work at the local level. (Shiman, 1992). Women were also the ‘victims’ of drink, the Women and a positive role subject of violence from drunken husbands who spent their wages in the pub. Increasingly, Women are centre stage currently in discussions towards the end of the nineteenth century, they of alcohol consumption. Their role has also been too were seen as culpable. Concern about important in the past. There are three main women’s own drinking rose at a time of fear, in areas where historical interest has concentrated: the wake of the revelations of physical unfitness • women as leaders of temperance at the time of the Boer War, about the ‘future of sentiment the race’. The scientific theories of the time

16 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

stressed the hereditary transmission of Historians have drawn attention to the fact deficiencies and also the Lamarckian doctrine of that the focus on women arose not just from the ‘inheritance of acquired characteristics’. This objective realities but also from fears about was the ‘alcohol gene’ discussion of its time. It working-class culture and from changes in was enormously influential across social policy women’s role and their greater independence. and such ‘eugenic’ ideas stressed the central role Research on who was confined in inebriate of women’s drinking. Such arguments were reformatories shows that more men were easy bedfellows for arguments about women’s prosecuted as inebriates, but institutions were supposed lack of domestic skills, arguments more widely used to confine women (Hunt et which were common in other social reforming al., 1989). Such a mix of influences has organisations. The novelist G.R. Sims described continued to mark concerns about women’s graphically how: drinking. Thom’s (1997) study of the later arrival in the 1970s of women’s drinking on the It is no uncommon sight in these [public house] policy agenda stresses how demand for action places to see a mother wet a baby’s lips with gin- arose from different ideological standpoints. A and-water. The process is called ‘giving the young recent study of the rise in importance of fetal ’un a taste’, and the baby’s father will look on alcohol syndrome as a public health issue in the sometimes and enjoy the joke immensely. United States also makes the point that such a (Sims, quoted in Gutzke, 1984, p. 77) ‘social problem’ was defined through wider Such concerns led to legislative action. The social fears, including those about women’s 1902 Licensing Act enabled a magistrate to send independence and freedom in the post-pill era an inebriate wife to a reformatory in lieu of a (Armstrong and Abel, 2000). separation order, and the Provision of Meals Act of 1903 and Prevention of Cruelty Act of 1904 Contemporary relevance provided for detention where neglect and cruelty The recent concerns about public disorder have were due to drink. The Act was also used to particularly focused on the role of women’s commit drunken prostitutes and the poorest and drinking and the rise of a ‘ladette’ culture. most troublesome sections of the male labouring Figures for cirrhosis among young women are classes. Such sections of society, according to Dr rising. This is a change from the 1980s when Branthwaite, the inspector of reformatories, concern about drinking focused on the male ‘bring into the world ill-fed, uncared-for and ‘lager lout’. Women as mothers are not of so mentally useless children, who provide the mass much interest as they were in the past, but there from which the future criminal, drunken, and are still fears of female emancipation, of women lunatic army is recruited’ (Berridge, 2004, p. 4). stepping outside traditional boundaries. This The 1908 Children Act excluded children under ties in with the ‘problem with boys’ arguments the age of 14 from all areas of licensed premises where women are now seen as more assertive, where alcohol was consumed or for sale and confident and successful in work and social such restrictions were reluctantly accepted by the situations. Some interviewees stressed that there brewers and retailers (Berridge, 2004). was little potential for an anti-alcohol message

17 Temperance

directed to women: such messages could be general social dislocation and fear of seen as discriminatory. After all, feminists in the social change. 1960s and 70s had argued that women could • Such concerns recognise a ‘real’ buy and sink a pint as well as a man; they could phenomenon but also overemphasise and hardly criticise women now when they took to foreground it unnecessarily. This drinking as an independent leisure activity. One confusion should be recognised. interviewee commented, ‘We wanted to be different, but women now want to be like men’. • In the past women have played a The current situation does offer potential. leadership role in relation to the culture of There could be greater recognition, based on the drinking. Such leadership could be history, of the double-edged nature of the developed in the present, given women’s arguments about women’s drinking. Such educational advances and more central coverage recognises a social phenomenon but role in society which are similar to the also runs the risk of giving it too much advances women made a century ago. prominence, of singling out women for blame. Recognition of this could induce more realistic Religion and a multicultural society and less fearful public attitudes which in themselves could form part of cultural change. Historical context The links between women’s greater The nineteenth-century temperance movement independence and educational attainment now had a strong religious dimension at a time when could also be built on more than they are to religion was more central in society. Religion stress a culture of greater responsibility. In the interacted with temperance through both moral past women played a leadership role in relation theology and social reform. Levine (2002) has to alcohol, which built on women’s greater argued that countries with large and ongoing education and emancipation at the end of the temperance movements in the nineteenth and nineteenth century. Currently there is little early twentieth centuries were predominantly coverage of women as social leaders and what Protestant societies. The role of religious there is is often patronising.There are levers for sentiment in Prohibition in the USA is well change: for example, the new chief executive of known (Burnham, 1968/9; Tyrell, 1997). Alcohol Concern is a woman, and a woman Harrison also linked temperance in the UK with politician (Lynne Featherstone of the Liberal increased recreation and stressed its secularising Party) has recently spoken on alcohol tendencies. But some of the earliest temperance consumption. Other female public figures could agitation came out of religious concerns, for also take a lead. example Father Mathew’s crusades in Ireland, although the many who took the pledge under To sum up his influence did not remain with it. The • Concern about women’s drinking is Nonconformist, Quaker and, ultimately, Church nothing new and has arisen at times of of England support for ‘the drink question’ gave

18 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

it added weight in Victorian and Edwardian useful for considering the relationships between society. religion and temperance. Schmidt (1995) has The nature of that support changed over drawn attention, in the US context, to the role of time and the relationships between organised temperance as an expression of a ‘crisis of religion and temperance were complex. When contested authority’ in the Protestant temperance first began, the churches, accepting denominations in the nineteenth century. A new the role of social drinking, did not theology focused on religious salvation through wholeheartedly embrace the new movement. the suppression of vice; it supported public Although Quaker and Nonconformist support crusading activities which ultimately came to was noticeable in temperance organisations, the focus on intemperance. This was a new kind of coming of teetotalism changed the situation effort to assert the authority of religious ideas in between the churches and temperance and the public sphere and to regroup religious forces caused an estrangement. Many Quakers under auspices outside the church. supported temperance, but they saw nothing Similar changes can be seen in the UK. Olsen wrong in moderation and Quaker families were (1994), for example, has pointed to the changing also prominent brewers in the early part of the attitude of the Church of England in the last nineteenth century. The withdrawal of support quarter of the nineteenth century. The Church of of the churches from the movement after total England Temperance Society was established in abstinence became the dominant objective also 1873 with a dual motive: it promoted caused hostility on the part of temperance teetotalism among the majority but affirmed the interests. But as Shiman has noted (Shiman, legitimacy of moderate drinking among the 1988, p. 45), this was a complicated situation. British medical and social elite. The traditional Some churches did identify total abstinence Catholic stance was that drink had its place and with religion and often there was disagreement that use and abuse had to be distinguished. between churches of the same denomination on Officially the Roman Catholic Church regarded the temperance question. Working-class chapels drunkenness as one of the seven deadly sins but like the Primitive Methodists and the Bible drunkenness was not the sin of the drink but of Christians strongly supported temperance, the drunkard. Cardinal Manning’s work for while mainstream Methodism was more temperance from the 1860s gave the cause a divided. The Salvation Army took the anti-drink cachet in Catholic circles; he carried out active message directly onto the streets and religious teetotal work in his ‘League of the Cross’. leaders also campaigned against the influence of Harrison (1971, p. 169) concludes that by the drink and music halls. 1860s teetotal progress was being made in all Greenaway (2003) has pointed out, in a denominations: ‘In all the denominations, the discussion of the changing attitudes of the men of the future were by now becoming churches and of nonconformity, that there were teetotallers.’ two ways in which the churches interacted with There was a gradual coming together of the drink problem: as a moral question and as a temperance and organised religion by the 1870s. social and economic issue. This division is However, Harrison argues that this alliance

19 Temperance

brought long-term dangers for both. It The Church rose as a body … it was seriously ultimately downgraded the role of religion as a influential … prerequisite for moral progress; for temperance (Interview with Andrew Cunningham) it narrowed the movement’s focus and made it Such events were exempted from the more ‘respectable’ and professionalised. In requirements of the Act. According to Stephen addition, debates over the issue of the use of Orchard of Westminster College, this was fermented or unfermented wine in the ‘straining at the gnat but swallowing the camel’. sacrament caused divisions in the Church of The churches contributed very little to the England, which decided in the 1880s that it debates on licensing in part for fear of would not, as temperance supporters had appearing ‘old-fashioned’. Alcohol was not part urged, allow the use of unfermented wine in the of the ‘social responsibility’ strand of religious sacraments. thinking. So, although the connection of religion and temperance in terms of both moral theology and It’s not discussed much now, it’s the ‘old morality’ agitation for social reform was strong, it was – we must move on to international peace and complex and changed over time. world trade … (Interview with Stephen Orchard) Contemporary relevance It seems unlikely currently that mainstream Does this history have anything at all to say to and influential religious organisations will take the present? In contemporary society, the on alcohol as a central issue. Campaigns on religious demoninations which exerted such baby milk and the food companies are seen as a sway in the nineteenth century have lost their more ‘modern’ issue. But alcohol could be a public support. Church and chapel attendance is relevant issue in terms of Christian religion if declining. Allied movements such as Sunday the churches chose to link it with local action or observance have little public support. The the radical side of religious activities, through religious input into the alcohol issue, along with trade, or the developing world, or the role of the ‘mass movement’ model, appears to be women. another aspect of ‘old-fashioned’ temperance. In this sense, the religious heritage of the Andrew Cunningham of the DCMS drew historic mainstream UK churches is hampering attention to the paradoxical role of organised their current initiatives. But is that perhaps for religious interests in the Licensing Bill the best? Echoing Harrison’s historical discussions. The Church of England could have comment, the theologian Dr Norman a major impact on discussions and policy when commented that churchmen applying religion to it chose. But this influence had been exerted politics might succeed only in reflecting the only once – over the proposal in the bill that prevailing fashions of the secular world (quoted concerts in churches serving alcohol would not in Greenaway, 1984). There are moves to be exempt from the requirement to obtain develop a ‘new theology’ which takes attitudes entertainment licences. to alcohol on board and this could in turn

20 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

impact on religious culture in the same way that influence at the policy level, if exerted, new initiatives did in the nineteenth century could be substantial. (Cook, 2004). • Reordering of moral theology in relation The influence of other religions in British to drink is taking place and may lead to a society on alcohol has been neglected in revised church interest in alcohol as a discussion. Jewish temperance and abstinence public issue. combined with an ability to use unfermented wine as part of religious ritual and ceremony • Other religions in British society have was often referred to as a model in the ‘future of more active attitudes towards drink and the race’ discussions at the end of the nineteenth abstinence, yet these are rarely currently century. It was argued then that different acknowledged or built upon as part of a attitudes to the use of alcohol contributed to the range of publicly discussed options. better health of the Jewish population (e.g. Marks, 1991; Heggie, 2005). Muslims generally Better scientific messages do not drink and try to maintain this stance in British society. Joynal Uddin, a community Historical context activist in West Euston, spoke of how religious It is often forgotten that temperance had a classes after school for young people and direct strong scientific component. The scientific side supervision of their life as students at university of temperance manifested itself historically in helped to maintain norms of abstinence two ways: (interview with Joynal Uddin). Such cultural • moves to establish a state-funded differences are little emphasised in any public treatment system discussion of alcohol, perhaps because they raise sensitive issues. School health education • scientific discussion about the effects of which is discussed below acknowledges this alcohol. religious diversity but there is little discussion The role of medicine within temperance elsewhere. Nevertheless, such religious became important in Britain and other countries attitudes could be built on in the public towards the end of the nineteenth century. In discussion of abstinence which this report both Britain and the USA ideas grew that the suggests and in a wider consideration of levels excessive consumption of alcohol was a disease of alcohol use and non-use and how different and this was accompanied by the rise of a patterns of drinking could coexist in society. medically based movement to do something about alcohol. The medical temperance To sum up movement aimed to stop the use of drink as a • The historic British religious medicine but it also had wider legislative aims. organisations, the churches, have had It wanted the provision of medical, state-funded little impact or interest in the drink treatment for what were then called inebriates. question in recent times. However, their

21 Temperance

The intention was to divert these ‘habitual if they were tried and convicted of drunkenness drunkards’ out of the ‘revolving door’ of prison four times in one year. The power to and into treatment. The rationale was that compulsorily detain non-criminal inebriates, drinkers were diseased. Modern scientific long advocated by medical reformers, was research had revealed: never granted. Financial battles between the Home Office and the local authorities, charged ‘that intemperance has a physical and with rate-funding the reformatories, bedevilled pathological as well as a legal, moral and spiritual the implementation of the Act. Further plans to aspect, that there is a gospel of the body as there extend the law failed. Even before the First is a gospel of the soul …’, so stated Norman Kerr, World War, the inebriates legislation fell into the President of the British Society for the Study disuse. Only 14 reformatories dealing with 4,590 of Inebriety, in an 1893 lecture on Inebriety and inmates were in operation. Drinkers and drug Jurisprudence. takers fell within the ambit of lunacy and (Kerr, quoted in Berridge, 1990, pp. 999–1000) mental deficiency legislation as alternative ways Doctors like Kerr, who were also temperance of keeping them out of the hands of the law. supporters, organised and lobbied for a state It is also important to remember the historic treatment system. The classic punishment for connection between these medical moves and drunkenness at this time was a fine, or criminal justice agendas. The Inebriates Act imprisonment for several weeks or months. initiatives typified the mingling of medical Numbers imprisoned had risen rapidly, from science with crime and disorder concerns. The 4,000 in the early 1860s to 23,000 in 1876. There probation service, the organisation which came were moves to reform this process and to insert to link criminal justice with rehabilitation, also a medicinal component. In 1870, Donald had its origin in temperance, in the temperance Dalrymple, Liberal MP for Bath, formerly a missionaries who appeared before the police surgeon in Norwich and proprietor of the courts to ‘reclaim’ drunkards who appeared Heigham Lunatic Asylum, introduced a private before them (Jarvis, 1972). member’s bill to that end. It was unsuccessful, Tying in with these policy-related medical but in 1872 a parliamentary select committee on initiatives were scientific discussions, often the control and management of habitual inspired by medical temperance, of the effects of drunkards, of which Dalrymple was chairman, alcohol on the body (Berridge, 1990). The urged the need for legislation to bring about the eugenic and hereditarian ideas which had compulsory treatment of voluntary patients and fuelled late nineteenth- and early twentieth- of convicted drunkards. The results were century medical science were falling out of initially disappointing. In 1879, the Habitual favour by the time of the 1914–18 war. Medicine, Drunkards Act opened up compulsory however, was not the only form of science treatment for non-criminal inebriates who could within the temperance movement. Temperance pay. A further Act followed in 1888, and the economics drew attention to the wastefulness of 1898 Inebriates Act allowed the committal of expenditure on drink. Every year, the criminal inebriates to state-funded reformatories publication of the National Drink Bill drew

22 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

attention to both the direct and indirect costs of that the earlier association with ‘scientific drink. But, as Dingle (1977) has noted, temperance’ made scientists wary about temperance economics came to be seen as engaging with the area; and that science tended outmoded because the temperance interests to minimise the harms of alcohol because of the refused to take on board the newer social earlier temperance associations (Pauly, 1994). analyses which drew attention to broader problems of poverty. In 1911, with fears of war Contemporary relevance increasing, the Church of England Temperance Both these themes – the policy influence of Society’s publication The Economics of the Drink science and debates about the effects of alcohol Problem pointed out that the money spent on – have been important post-1945, but seem to drink could be used to buy more firepower: have been less influential in recent times. The policy lobby has continued. Commentators have The sum spent on intoxicants in the year would drawn attention to the rise of a ‘neo-temperance purchase Seventy-five ‘Dreadnoughts,’ and leave alliance’ round drink in which science has a balance of over Seven Millions Sterling. played a key role. This international coalition of Perhaps, however, the most striking comparison researchers first came together in the 1970s. The of all is contained in the fact that every penny publication of their original manifesto, Alcohol spent on the Navies of the seven First-class Naval Control Policies in Public Health Perspective, Powers of the world amounts to £120,810,435; known as the ‘Purple Book’, began scientific or, in round numbers, Thirty seven Millions advocacy based on epidemiologically focused Sterling less than the United Kingdom spends on research (Baggott, 1990; Thom, 1999). This what is the chief cause of poverty, sickness and scientific stance has produced publications such crime. as Alcohol Policy and the Public Good (Edwards et (Johnson Baker, 1911, p. 57) al., 1994) and the recent Alcohol: No Ordinary The restrictions on drinking imposed during Commodity (Babor et al., 2003). The scientifically the First World War marked the height of driven coalition has advocated a whole- scientific influence over policy making. But this population approach to alcohol problems rather was a different type of science. Physiological than the disease focus popular just after the studies of drinking and its effects funded by the Second World War and in the 1950s and1960s. It newly established Medical Research Council has been concerned to bring alcohol into a closer fuelled the arguments about the relation relationship with mainstream public health between alcohol consumption and industrial concerns: historians have commented on the efficiency. In the interwar years scientific effort separation of alcohol from the public health focused also, with some temperance influence, movement in the nineteenth century because of on the development of physiological measures temperance influence. The science has also of alcohol consumption like the blood alcohol broadened to include areas such as economics, test, which was to be important for drink- important historically within temperance. It has driving. Some historians of American alcohol generally been critical of industry influence on research during the interwar years have claimed alcohol policy: one interviewee commented that

23 Temperance

medical interests had been more evangelical is little public discussion of health in relation to than the churches on the drink issue. these policy initiatives. This lobby appears to have had less The scientific message about alcohol now influence in recent times and its ‘public face’ has has to be promoted to the public and the clarity also lost visibility, with some notable recent of the public message has become blurred by exceptions. The pre-Alcohol Strategy recent developments. In the 1980s the ‘unit publication of the Academy of Medical Sciences’ strategy’ promoted by medical interests and by report Calling Time and the media coverage of government seemed to give a clear message. But criticisms by alcohol researcher Robin Room that message has become less clear as time has and others of the Alcohol Strategy and the gone on. There has been public Licensing Act gave this alliance greater public acknowledgement by some of those involved in visibility. But some interviewees for this drawing up the unit strategy that these were research commented that the medical and only ‘back of the envelope’ calculations in the scientific sector seemed currently less well first place; the government report Drinking networked by comparison with the public order Sensibly in 1995 changed the measure to daily lobby which was driving alcohol policy. It may units and appeared to be raising permissible be for this reason that there was disappointment levels; and also the increase in size of bar in the medical field with the content of the measures has not helped. Professor Sir Michael Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy because of its Marmot, who chaired the Academy of Medical failure to deliver on the treatment side of Sciences committee, commented that the medical concerns and because its preoccupation scientific message about alcohol was different to with ‘binge drinking’ meant that chronic alcohol that about smoking. With alcohol the issue of problems elsewhere were neglected. However, moderate use and its health benefits also served the movement towards national standards for to blur public perceptions of science (interview treatment and the inclusion of alcohol in the with Michael Marmot). This is a debate with National Treatment Agency and in local Drug historic roots, as we have seen above. Action teams shows some progress. The public message from science has also The connection with criminal justice interests been confused by the concept of binge drinking which is so marked a feature of health in and what that means. Binge drinking used to relation to drugs currently is also a developing mean what down-and-out drinkers did. But it feature of the alcohol field. ASBOs can apply to has widened as a concept, in part after it was alcohol offenders with treatment as part of the rediscovered by public health epidemiologists package and there are long-standing in Eastern Europe (McKee et al., 2001). This has arrangements for diversion into or through modified the traditional public health probation departments for alcohol offenders. population approach. It has high public However, the criminal justice element of such visibility but tends to drive a wedge between packages is currently dominant, for example in them (young people who drink too much) and the proposed drink-banning orders and other us (who may also drink but whose drinking is policy initiatives like drink-control zones. There ‘moderate’). It emphasises ‘high risk’ drinking.

24 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

Alcohol science does not have the broad Education coalitions which have operated for other Historical context substances or in the past; coalitions with Like all nineteenth-century movements for criminal justice interests could open up the issue improvement, temperance placed great and bring the issue of the burden on the health emphasis on education and information. A flood service and on families more centrally into some of temperance tracts and newspapers appeared. of the debates. In 1861 William Tweedie, the temperance publisher, affirmed that there were three weekly To sum up newspapers with a united circulation of 25,000, • Science and medicine, with overt six monthly magazines with a united circulation temperance connections and as a ‘neo- of over 20,000 and two quarterly reviews with a temperance alliance’, have played joint circulation of about 10,000. In addition important roles in policy making both in there were two periodicals for young abstainers: the nineteenth century and in more recent one the Scottish Adviser with a circulation of history. over 50,000, the other the Band of Hope Review, • Science is still important, as recent with a circulation of over 250,000 (Harrison, controversies make clear, but the scientific 1971, p. 308). influence on policy has been less strong, More formal temperance education came in in part for political reasons, in part schools in the early 1900s. In 1909 the Board of because of the blurred nature of the Education issued a ‘Syllabus of Lessons on scientific message. Both ‘moderation’ and “Temperance” for Scholars attending Public ‘binge drinking’ need clearer definition. It Elementary Schools’. The use of this syllabus is important to firm these concepts up and later revised ones was not compulsory but and also to discuss the possible health it contained what Wilson (1940, p. 255) called ‘a benefits of abstinence and low-level or very careful survey of the effects of alcoholic irregular drinking. indulgence on the physiological, social and economic life of the individual and the • Alliance building, for example with the community’. public order lobby, or the development of Aside from such formal educational a science-based pressure group or intervention those, especially young people, coalition could be a way to gain greater who took part in temperance organisations, influence. An alliance with criminal belonged to temperance friendly societies and justice interests would build on the role of attended temperance meetings and rallies were temperance in the origin of the probation involved in a whole culture of non-drinking, service and also through the Inebriates which also managed to provide recreation and Acts in the past. fun. This was recreation and education at the

25 Temperance

same time. The Band of Hope and its public light of recent smoking campaigns and the marches provided a whole world for young apparent success in securing reduced people. Derek Rutherford, of the Institute of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases of Alcohol Studies, who grew up in the the much derided national AIDS campaign of temperance movement, remembered the 1987. The role of TV programmes and public attractions in an era of rationing, of ‘jelly and ice figures who do not drink or who have concerns cream’. This was what the meetings initially about alcohol (as the non-smoking comedian meant to him. Roy Castle’s lung cancer was used in the passive smoking debate) is currently under- Contemporary relevance exploited. Such a cultural context has gone. The vehicles The ‘information culture’ of the early for education are now different. The Public twenty-first century is far removed from the Health White Paper outlined an agenda for co- nineteenth-century pamphlets. The media is an operation with the Portman Group, the important force now – in setting the agenda for organisation representing part of the alcohol the public, and for politicians. In an interview industry, to bring education to young people, in for this project, Jo Revill, health editor of the particular those over 16. The Group itself sees Observer, commented how women’s magazines this as a central part of its role. Sarah Maclean of had played an important role in putting health the Department for Education and Skills more centrally in their coverage and how commented that in school education now, alcohol had shot up the media agenda over the drugs, alcohol and tobacco are brought together past year and a half. The public interest in such in the science part of the national curriculum, issues and in problems of disorder and crime and that different cultural attitudes to drink are had coincided, for health correspondents, with a also acknowledged. lessening of stories about problems in the NHS. Whether education has an impact on Public health issues like obesity and alcohol had behaviour has been much discussed in the emerged on an equal footing with health service health promotion field and elsewhere. In the stories. temperance movement, those concerned with As media analysts have often observed, such alcohol education are thinking in new ways. coverage not only moulds but also reflects George Ruston of Hope UK, the present-day public interests and attitudes. It is important too successor to the Band of Hope, spoke of the in setting issues on the political agenda. Revill, need to use informal networks of influence, to in her interview, mentioned some key issues for plug into alliances like the environmental the media. These covered public order (binge movement and to learn from marketing drinking and the Licensing Act) and also the strategies used by the alcohol industry. He scientific evidence (the Marmot report pointed out that delivering face-to-face [Academy of Medical Sciences, 2004]‘gave education might not be the best or only option. everyone some meat’). This gives a clue to the The need to shock, long discounted as sort of alliances which might feed into the counterproductive, is being reassessed in the developing media agenda on alcohol. The

26 How to change drinking culture: the lessons from temperance

emergence of gambling liberalisation as an issue and acknowledges different cultural has added another aspect to potential coverage attitudes to drinking. Industry has – as has the proposed partial prohibition of formed alliances with government on smoking in pubs promised in the Public Health post-16 education on drink. White Paper. Alcohol-related items are likely to •Temperance organisations are considering remain important in domestic news coverage as innovative ways of disseminating the Licensing Act is implemented. Obesity is knowledge. The role of TV series and of another issue with alcohol potential since drink non-drinking public figures with appeal also piles on weight. The connections which is underused. could be made with the food (food and drink) agenda have not so far been exploited. So media • The role of the media is of central coverage should continue to expand. importance in defining public and policy agendas. Conditions are ripe for further To sum up change and development in media • Education and information were central coverage of alcohol. components of temperance in the This section of the report has considered the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. important role of changing culture and the • Formal education is likely to achieve little different engines of cultural change both without wider policy and social change. historically and in contemporary society. But politics and policy are also central; and to this • However, educational initiatives do offer aspect the report now turns. possibilities. School education brings together alcohol with drugs and smoking

27 5 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance

Political alliances and possibilities attributed their defeat to poor leadership which had led to issues like local veto (local Historical context prohibition of the sale of drink) assuming Temperance was a national movement in the unwarranted prominence. Local veto bills nineteenth century, but initially was not allied introduced in the 1890s by the party had not with one or other of the main political parties of given political advantage. Increasingly the party the time, the Liberals and the Conservatives. In politics of drink became bound up in the wider 1862 a pro-temperance bill was supported by 48 political issues of the 1890s such as Home Rule, Liberals and 47 Conservatives (Shiman, 1988, the rise of socialism and imperial defence. By p. 218). It was not until the UKA decided to take adapting puritanical policies on drink, the direct action that a division on party lines began Liberals seemed to be alienating many valuable to take shape. At the 1872 election, the UKA working-class voters. asked candidates whether they would support The divisions within the Royal Commission the Permissive Bill and gave the answers wide on Liquor Licensing and its majority and publicity. Temperance interests turned minority reports produced in 1899 added to the increasingly to the Liberal Party. By the mid- confusion. The Liberal repositioning after the 1890s, after Liberals had adopted the defeat of 1895 involved major problems in temperance programme, interests that relation to temperance interests. Local veto was supported drink turned to become associated frightening off influential party backers, with the Conservatives. including retailers like the Gilbey firm, and was These political alliances were not as simple not popular with the electorate. Political as they seemed and produced complex tensions calculation among the new Liberal leadership which were reflected in the political debates on played a major part in determining what should local option and also on licensing. This section be its policy on temperance. As Dingle surveys the peak of those debates from the observed, ‘For almost thirty years Liberal 1890s until just before the First World War. This leaders had bemoaned the lack of unanimity period saw the emergence of a divided agenda within the temperance movement but by the within temperance and also new attitudes end of the century they were actively towards drink as a political issue within the encouraging it’ (quoted in Greenaway, 2003, p. Liberal Party. The main vehicle of the political 66). The last thing they wanted was the alliance was the UKA and its prohibitionist appearance of thraldom to a united temperance policy of local veto. Licensing was a key front. political issue of the time. By the mid-1890s it The possibility of a united front was was clear that prohibition was not a vote winner diminishing because temperance itself was for the Liberal Party. The Conservative victory developing two distinct political agendas by the in the 1895 general election was widely ascribed turn of the century. In terms of the intellectual by the drinks trade to have resulted from its climate, the UKA position of prohibition was influence, although not all agreed. The Liberals

28 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance

under challenge from a number of directions wider programme. Whittaker and his from the 1880s. The writings and investigations supporters could not win the day in terms of of social scientists like Charles Booth and of Liberal Party support because of the existence of social reformers like the Webbs and Joseph significant pockets of local veto support, in Rowntree linked drink with wider arguments particular in Scotland and Wales. A canny about poverty and social reform. Socialist ideas political initiative could have used the moves to were spreading and led to new ideas about the introduce restrictionist reforms. But the Alliance role of drink. Some socialists, like Philip supporters were too intransigent to do this – or Snowden, saw prohibition and temperance as to adapt to the new discourse of social reform. useful auxiliary engines in the battle against Drink reached the high point of party poverty. Others, like the Fabians, saw the political controversy in the years between 1902 answer in collective control by the people of a and 1914. It became one of the major areas of dangerous traffic, through municipalisation conflict between the parties and contributed to (Greenaway, 2003, p. 57). the constitutional crisis of 1909–11. The initial Such ideas also spread within the impetus came from the activities of magistrates parliamentary ranks of temperance supporters at the local level who began to reduce licences and a divided agenda emerged. The Liberal as part of a move to force reduction and temperance MP Whittaker led a faction which redistribution out of urban areas. It had been had links to others like Rowntree, Sherwell and widely argued that there were excess numbers Lady Somerset and which drafted a new and of ‘on’ licences in urban centres and that such wider programme based around the idea of places were insanitary drinking dens where the disinterested management (a system whereby publican pushed alcohol on the customer. The those who sold alcohol had no pecuniary magistrates’ new militancy in the early interest in its sale). A programme of reform twentieth century caused alarm in the trade: emphasised the raising of compensation money brewers had sunk large sums in tied houses. from the trade, wide powers of local self- The subsequent 1904 Licensing Act was a debt government, disinterested control and a system paid by the Conservative government to the whereby adequate counter-attractions to the trade: the party had had no independent desire public house would be developed and to reopen the licensing question. The Act maintained. Local veto was a possibility in this provided for safeguards, including a programme but was left in a subordinate compensation fund which was to come from a position. levy on all licensed properties and was to be Such ideas were violently opposed by the administered on a local basis. New licences prohibitionist section of political temperance were exempt from the scheme but were to pay a and the movement entered the twentieth high licence duty. century divided into two bitterly warring It was the Liberal Party’s attempt to reverse factions. The UKA has been criticised by the provisions of this Act through the 1908 historians for its failure to compromise and to Licensing Bill, and the rejection of that bill by take control of the possibilities inherent in this the Unionist majority in the Lords, which led to

29 Temperance

the constitutional crisis. One-third of retail drink local level has come from both Labour outlets in the country were to be closed; (Camden) and Conservative (Westminster) compensation was for a time-limited period of councils. Simon Milton, leader of Westminster 14 years at the end of which full monopoly Council, commented that this was far from the value was to transfer to the state. Opposition traditional Conservative image of close links focused on the threat to property and with ‘the trade’ (interview with Simon Milton). confiscation, seen as the precursor of socialism At this local level, concern about the and nationalisation. But Lloyd George, that expansion of late-night licensing and the adept political operator, was not at all fazed by increase in the number of premises has had the failure of the bill. He saw taxation as the political advantage: Simon Milton became way forward and as a way of getting the party leader of Westminster Council on an agenda of political advantage in the wider issue of tariff opposition to the council’s then policy on the reform. As Greenaway comments, ‘Lloyd late-night economy. Milton’s view on the George had grasped the interlocking nature of political future was that the national parties the taxation and social reform questions and would compete at the next general election but saw the budget not as a mere fiscal device but as one (the interview took place before the 2005 a political opportunity’ (Greenaway, 2003, p. 85). general election) partly on the issue of alcohol The sharply increased drink-licensing duties and controls, possibly in alliance with were also a backdoor way of reducing outlets. sympathetic sections of the trade. The impact of The 1909 Budget, which linked drink taxes to the Licensing Act could lead to a backlash, and land value taxes, was a way of arousing also to problems for the industry with a growth working-class enthusiasm for Liberalism and in capacity and oversupply of licensed premises cementing a progressive alliance with which would have to compete on price. In the traditional nonconformist radicalism. 2005 general election, the Conservative Party Local veto was finally enacted, but only in used the licensing issue and alcohol control as Scotland through a 1913 Act. Few in either part of its London manifesto. Dame Jane political party cared about it much either way Roberts, Labour leader of Camden Council, saw any longer. a political future at the local government level for issues like alcohol: local government’s future Contemporary relevance role lay in part in the regulation of behaviour. Do the complex political scenarios of a century She saw the alcohol issue as part of a spectrum ago have any relevance to the present? They of community safety interventions at the local could well do, given changing circumstances. level – including ASBOs and dispersal orders, The drink issue is again focused on licensing which have proved popular with local reform, although it is now liberalisation rather communities (interview with Jane Roberts). than reduction of licences as it was a century It is clear from these comments, which are ago. The political configurations are also ‘of the time’ when they were made, that there different. The Act is being promoted by a are emergent political possibilities in the drink Labour government; political opposition at the issue which have not been present for some

30 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance

time. The Labour Party’s attitude to the drink moderationist interests on drink gaining issue historically was divided – the party had political weight. advocates of temperance, nationalisation and •Taxation began to be used as a levy on liberalisation. It remains to be seen how this drink by astute Liberal politicians like legacy will play out in current politics. Charles Lloyd George. Clarke, the Home Secretary, has held talks with chief constables, holding out the olive branch of • At the present time, there are again more funding to aid city centre policing at political possibilities in the licensing weekends. This could defuse police opposition issue. These are developing at the local to the Act, since the police originally supported level and may also transfer into national licensing reform and moved to oppose when politics through the main parties. promises of extra resources did not materialise. • It would be possible for coalitions of Behavioural control measures at the local level, interest outside government to influence including alcohol dispersal zones, could help such developments, although other defuse public opposition to the Licensing Act political considerations will always changes. More recently the Liberal Party has determine whether politicians support taken up the issue, stressing the impact of them or not. alcohol on health services. Alcohol now has political potential for all parties at both local and national levels. Working with industry

Historical context To sum up The mention of coalitions brings us to further • Drink became a political issue between historical developments at the national policy the 1870s and the outbreak of the First level. The following section surveys what World War with temperance allied to the happened politically to temperance and politics Liberal Party and the trade in alliance during the First World War and after and it with the Conservatives. identifies strategies and alliances, some of • Political interest came to focus on which were successful. It also identifies avenues licensing and its restriction. which were not fully followed and which could be rethought in the present. • The political alliances round the issue The nature of drink control as an issue were complex and politicians’ interests in changed during the First World War to one of drink were linked with wider political drink and the national effort, to drink and agendas. A new social discourse of ‘national efficiency’. The controls put in place poverty and social reform also informed the equivalent of a national alcohol strategy.The thinking on drink. creation of the Central Control Board (Liquor • The rigidity of prohibitionist temperance Traffic) (CCB) initiated a more active interests prevented a broad coalition of governmental interest in alcohol policy. Lloyd

31 Temperance

George’s original plans for nationalisation of the The wartime initiatives were not continued drinks industry gave way to more moderate in peacetime despite the desire of D’Abernon measures through the CCB, which was and his supporters for a constructive alcohol established in 1915. By the beginning of 1917, 38 policy. Greenaway cites changes in the political out of 41 million inhabitants of the UK lived landscape; the growth of bureaucratic politics under its control. It was the Board which meaning that individual departmental policies introduced the ‘afternoon gap’; sales hours for became more important; the growth in political ‘on’ consumption were reduced to five and a astuteness of the trade; and the divisions and half hours in almost all scheduled districts. A lack of political ‘nous’ of the temperance policy of dilution of spirits was gradually movement. There were opportunities in this enforced. ‘Treating’ (buying drinks for others) in situation, but no group or alliances really seized public houses was prohibited to deal with the them. The restriction on hours, however, was problem of servicemen being plied with enshrined in the 1921 Licensing Act. In 1928, excessive numbers of drinks. The chairman of D’Abernon lamented this failure to appreciate the CCB, Lord D’Abernon, brought a fresh mind what the wartime strategy had achieved and its to the drink question. Its work emphasised future potential. research, the role of drink in relation to food, neither of the parties interested – neither the and occupational and industrial issues. The temperance party nor the drinks trade – have CCB extended its work through the purchase of shown any indication in their speeches that they the trade in munitions areas, of which Carlisle understand what has been discovered and was the most prominent. Although further state accomplished. Temperance reformers denounce purchase was indefinitely postponed, the as they denounced in 1914; trade orators reiterate wartime policies offered the model of a national their speeches of 1750. alcohol strategy. (D’Abernon, 1928, p. vi) The restrictions had their impact on consumption and related health problems. Both The interwar years were marked by beer and spirit consumption fell markedly and declining drink consumption but also by convictions for drunkenness were down, as initiatives centred round co-operation with the were deaths from cirrhosis (Smart, 1974; trade through ‘disinterested management’ and Greenaway, 2003, pp. 111–12). The wartime the ‘improved public house’. Before the First restrictions played their part, as did the more World War, disinterested management had general trend towards lowered consumption attracted support from temperance interests since the 1890s and the growth of alternative who had turned their backs on prohibition and leisure facilities. The trade could also see that it the local veto. There had been various attempts could increase profits even when consumption at implementation, for example through the levels decreased. The future lay in People’s Refreshment House Association and rationalisation of assets and the creation of the Public House Trust Companies headed by better facilities for a more discerning market. Sir Edward Grey of Falloden. After the war,

32 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance

Carlisle offered the opportunity to develop anti-drink campaigners. On the other hand it disinterested management more fully. In the demonstrated the new style of policy making trade too, there was enthusiasm for improving involving departmental bureaucracies and the public houses so that they offered better ability of drink issues to achieve policy salience facilities and food. Whitbread set up a special if allied with other matters of public concern. Improved Public House Company to manage the catering and other demands of the new Contemporary relevance public house and donated pubs as part of an Such a history invites reflection in relation to experimental programme of the Association for initiatives in the current situation. The AHRSE Restaurant Public Houses in Poor Districts in is in some respects the inheritor of the CCB: the 1920s and 1930s (Gutzke, 2005). The next both offered a national strategy for drink. The Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing which improved public house is again on the agenda. reported in 1931 saw these types of The new policy initiatives stress voluntary improvement as central. But its responsibility on the part of the industry. The recommendations were ill-timed in policy terms recent dropping of the ‘happy hour’ is part of at a time of overall financial crisis. the trend towards more responsible promotions. Later post-war drink-related initiatives Organisations like the British Institute of Inn which were successful did build coalitions with Keeping offer a professionalising model for the other interests. Here we can instance the trade with qualifications in aspects of running attempt by the post-war Labour government to pubs and their management. ‘We’re trying to have state control of the drinks trade in the New soften our image’, said Stephen Thomas, Chief Towns; and in particular the introduction of the Executive of Luminar Leisure, a late-night breath test for drink-driving in the 1960s which theme bar venue provider, speaking at a Civic saw temperance interests involved, but in Trust conference. Thomas spoke of the Luminar relation to a whole host of other factors. Drink- five-point plan. This entailed: a minimum price; driving gained support because it was defined dispersal policies; a nominated driver receiving as road safety, where there was support for complimentary soft drinks through the evening; greater restriction, rather than drink control, the availability of water and coffee; and other where the trend was towards liberalisation. drinks increased in price (Civic Trust The post-1914 period offered avenues, so conference, ‘Calling Time’, 2004). Government historians have argued, which were not fully has told the trade that they have to put their taken. Divisions in the temperance movement house in order; and the Home Office campaign prevented full support for the concept of the in the summer of 2004 on under-age drinking improved public house and opportunities could showed disturbing numbers who were under have been taken to work more widely with the age being served. trade. The trade was never as united as it might Local authorities, too, may develop ideas have seemed to outsiders, and some historians about best practice as their responsibility for (e.g. Weir, 1984; Gutzke, 1989) have argued that licensing develops. A research project carried the influence of the trade was overestimated by out by QA Consulting and reported at the Civic

33 Temperance

Trust conference showed fragmentation with a single trade association to bring together the relatively few local authorities taking action on confusion of interests (Civic Trust conference, minimum pricing or the capacity of venues. 2004). There was a need to diversify the market, There were eight relevant pieces of legislation to bring back a range of drinkers. Some chains which could be applied but fragmentation and are clearly seeking a new role and looking at lack of knowledge at the local level – at that how the trade may develop in the future. stage – about what could be done. Such knowledge and ideas about ‘best practice’ will To sum up emerge. • Historically there were missed The trade itself, as in the past, is not as opportunities to capitalise on an overall unified as it might seem. Jean Coussins of the drink strategy after the First World War, Portman Group spoke of the difficulties in in part because of the divisions among getting united action since the restructuring of temperance interests and the astuteness the trade which had separated the brewers from and unification of the trade. the retailing end: • Some co-operation was achieved in The pubco [the retailing chains which operate relation to the moderationist agenda of drinking establishments] didn’t exist ten years improving public houses. ago. Some pubcos are conscious of social •Temperance achieved greatest success responsibility issues … they use the proof of age subsequently with issues like drink- cards, others don’t. The summer sting campaign driving where drink was allied with other with the Home Office showed the proportion of policy issues. pubs still selling to children was shocking. There’s the threat of statutory regulation … The new Act • There are elements of this situation at may up the ante if the local authorities use their present. Voluntary improvement and powers … The brewers had a strong sense of regulation of drinking environments are community … if the pub chain is owned by on the agenda as part of a harm reduction German banks or Japanese companies, they’re strategy. retailers and only want to take money. • The drinks industry/trade, despite its (Interview with Jean Coussins) image, is fragmented after restructuring. Only one member of the Portman Group, Opportunities exist for coalitions of Scottish and Newcastle, had any pubs left; to interest in particular at the local level. some extent the brewers were ‘between a rock • The success of drink-driving as a policy and a hard place’. They spent money on issue after the Second World War advertising to make the brand visible and then suggests that ways forward could be took the flack when retail cut-price promotions through more specific issues (like crime led to ‘binge drinking’ publicity. The sense of or public order currently, or a revival of fragmentation came across also from other drink-driving policy, or health service interests in the trade who spoke of the need for

34 Political dimensions: the lessons from temperance

issues such as cirrhosis deaths or accident Contemporary relevance and emergency costs) which have public The international dimension is still relevant to salience and policy visibility. the alcohol issue, although alcohol does not have its international convention like illicit drugs, which is regulated through the United Learning from other countries Nations, or the more recent World Health Historical context Organisation (WHO) Tobacco Framework Temperance was an international movement Convention. The influence of models translated and this manifested itself in a number of ways. from one country to another is still important – There were close links between temperance ‘binge drinking’ was first discussed in recent reformers in North America, Scandinavia, years in relation to Russian mortality figures Australia and the UK. The growth of medical and this had an impact on British policy societies dealing with inebriety was also marked discourse. However, not all influences take root by a good deal of international exchange, in in the domestic situation. American puritanism particular with the United States. International on drinking ages and other forms of restrictive alcohol conferences were held in the latter culture does not seem to be translating decades of the nineteenth century: in 1878 the wholesale into the British situation. Models now first international alcoholism congress was held tend to come from Europe, and both industry in Paris. In 1906 the first international and anti-drink interests are developing association was set up and located in Lausanne, European coalitions: ILSI (International Life where, as the International Council on Alcohol Sciences Institute) for the industry, and Eurocare and Addictions (ICAA), it still sits. But alcohol and a new European Alcohol Policy Network was never a serious candidate for overall for the anti-alcohol interests. Given the international regulation. The closest importance of Europe in securing action against approximation to international effort was in the tobacco this could be a significant avenue for African-based regional control arrangement the future. arrived between the parties to the General Act of the Brussels Conference of 1889–90 and To sum up included in the anti-slavery provisions of the •Temperance was an international Act (Bruun et al., 1975). movement and international networks are Politicians like Chamberlain looked to still important for alcohol. In future, overseas examples like the Swedish Gothenberg policies and action in Europe will be system for new ideas. Prohibition on the US important and may lead to international model was never a serious candidate for overall conventions as for drugs and tobacco. policy as in the USA after the First World War, but the success of the American reformers certainly encouraged the British prohibitionists to continue with their intransigent stance.

35 Temperance

Learning from the history of other The example of smoking and its cultural substances marginalisation since the 1950s also offers food for thought. Cultural change (the declining use Historical background of tobacco) has been accompanied by different The connections between temperance modes of policy – from co-operation with movements and agitations opposing the use of industry initially when smoking was a normal other substances were historically close. activity, through to harsher restriction and Temperance supporters were also involved in opposition to industry as the cultural anti-opium agitation, although in general this significance of smoking has declined. Tobacco tended to be opposition to the Indian opium activism is now the inheritor of the nineteenth- trade with China rather than opium century total abstinence model of temperance, consumption within the UK (Berridge, 1999). but it started from a harm reduction position in Joshua Rowntree wrote The Imperial Drug Trade the 1950s and 60s (Berridge, 2003). Can this (Rowntree, 1905) to attack this connection, history of stages in culture and policy change rather than from any concern for the domestic offer a model for alcohol? situation. The connections between drinking and drug taking were strong in the emergent To sum up treatment field through the discourse of • Developing connections between alcohol inebriety and common treatment facilities. Some and illicit drugs through diversion into temperance societies were also anti-tobacco and treatment build on historic moves to do some, in the nineteenth century, even included the same thing. smoking in the pledge (Harrison, 1971). • The recent history of smoking shows that Contemporary relevance cultural change is achieved over a long The connections with other substances continue period of time through various means; and also offer possibilities. Recent policy staging of policies is possible; and through both AHRSE and the concern for crime different alliances, including those with and disorder has brought alcohol and drugs industry, may be appropriate at different more closely together, in particular at the local stages of cultural change. level and through the connections with diversion from the criminal justice system into treatment.

36 6 Conclusion: implications for policy

So the past offers plenty of food for thought for – there are opportunities for wider the present. This report argues that the history democratic involvement offered by of temperance is relevant to current and future licensing reform. policy at three levels: •Temperance itself and its political and • The current debates often unwittingly scientific supporters missed strategic reuse arguments and take positions which opportunities in history or failed to come from temperance and the drink achieve certain aims. These are now again issue of the nineteenth century. The on the agenda. Issues here are: following concerns all echo nineteenth- – the enhanced role for local and early twentieth-century debates: government in licensing – crime and disorder – the political possibilities in the drink – out-of-control women issue – whether alcohol use is good for you or – the potential for working with sections not. of the industry.

• There are missed opportunities in the History does not repeat itself, but we can see present because the real history of similarities between the early twenty-first temperance is forgotten or misused. For century and the 1830s, the period of free trade example: and beerhouse expansion. This led to the huge – the role of women could be used more growth of temperance, of sentiment which was positively deeply critical of the results of free trade. –religion could also be built on in a Temperance cannot be revived in its nineteenth- multicultural society century version, but there are opportunities and – there are potential alliances between policy options in the present situation which its medical and scientific and criminal history throws sharply into focus. justice interests

37 References

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40 Appendix 1 Aims of the project

The aims of the project as originally set out • to conduct a series of interviews with ‘key were: actors’ in the alcohol field, informed by this literature review, to lead to • to relate the history of temperance and contemporary conclusions about policy historical interpretation to the concerns of directions current and future policy making • to produce a report and other • to conduct a literature review of the publications which link the historical secondary literature on temperance since questions and issues with an analysis of the nineteenth century, primarily in the current options. UK, taking into account the broad range of temperance activity and the changing nature of temperance over time

• to produce an analysis of this literature which focuses on the questions it raises for current alcohol policy making and strategy

41 Appendix 2 Historical literature review

There is a considerable secondary literature on ideologies changed over time, how temperance temperance emanating from historians and networks were reconstituted and how the others. In recent years there have been practical politics of temperance changed. The international conferences on the history of literature review encompassed the twentieth alcohol in which temperance has figured. There century and the period after the Second World is an Alcohol and Temperance History email War as well, a period when temperance network and also a journal, the Social History of concerns took new forms. Alcohol Review. These bibliographical sources What was considered to be good historical were utilised and contact made with leading work on these periods and activities was historians of alcohol who provided suggestions included in an EndNote database which is one for ‘key readings’. The library of the Institute of of the products of the project. The key articles Alcohol Studies provided a central location for were copied and notes were made on books and much of the literature. That library also has an other sources. These are included in the unrivalled collection of primary source material database which can be searched by topic. (temperance journals and books, Royal Topics included as key themes – and which Commission reports, pamphlets, lectures and are discussed in the course of the report – speeches). Time did not allow these to be used include: in detail in this project, but they would be 1 change over time in the aims of temperance valuable for an in-depth research project. The potential bibliography derived from 2 culture and temperance these sources was followed up in other libraries: 3 the role of women the library of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the British Library, Senate 4 the role of pressure groups in politics House Library and the Wellcome Library for the 5religion and temperance History and Understanding of Medicine. The PubMed database was also used. A separately 6relationships between temperance and the funded visit by Virginia Berridge to the History drinks industry of Medicine Division, National Library of 7 local dimensions of temperance Medicine, Bethesda, Washington, USA, uncovered material which was difficult to locate 8 science and temperance in UK collections. 9 temperance education The literature search was carried out by Suzanne Taylor and the literature was assessed 10 international dimensions of temperance by Virginia Berridge. The aim was not only to 11 relationship of temperance and alcohol cover key interpretive writing on temperance in policy to other substances and their its heyday of the nineteenth century, but also to histories. analyse how temperance concerns and

42 Appendix 2

There are 1,170 entries in the database, application to the Centre for History in Public including primary material, and 214 secondary Health at the London School of Hygiene and articles and books were used. This database is Tropical Medicine (www.lshtm.ac.uk/history) one of the outputs of the project and can be or at the library of the Institute of Alcohol accessed for research purposes either on Studies.

43 Appendix 3 Interviews

Twenty interviews were carried out by Virginia • Revd Professor Chris Cook, personal Berridge with those with interests in current communication alcohol policy or with connections with • Joynal Uddin, imam and community temperance organisations and their history. organiser, West Euston Partnership These were: 7Temperance organisations with current 1 Civil servants involved in current alcohol interests in the alcohol question policy, the Alcohol Harm Reduction • Andrew McNeill, Institute of Alcohol Strategy and changes to the licensing law Studies • Carol Sweetenham, Office of the Deputy • Derek Rutherford, Institute of Alcohol Prime Minister, formerly of the Cabinet Studies Office Strategy Unit • George Ruston, Hope UK • Andrew Cunningham, Department of 8 Medical, public health and scientific Culture, Media and Sport interests • Sarah Maclean, head of PSHE and •Professor Sir Michael Marmot, Citizenship Team DfES University College London 2 The drinks industry •Professor Griffith Edwards, National • Jean Coussins, director of the Portman Addiction Centre Group • Dr Gillian Tober, Leeds Addiction Unit (See also Civic Trust conference below) 9 Alcohol policy researchers 3 Politicians • Dr Betsy Thom, Middlesex University • Ross Cranston MP, chairman of the •Professor Rob Baggott, De Montfort Commons All-Party Group on Alcohol University Misuse 10 The alcohol voluntary sector 4 Local government • Eric Appleby, then Director of Alcohol • Dame Jane Roberts, leader of Camden Concern Council 11 The media • Cllr Simon Milton, leader of • Jo Revill, health editor of the Observer. Westminster Council The coverage of interviews was not intended 5 Local community interests to be fully comprehensive given the timescale of • Matthew Bennett, chair of the Open All the project, but simply to provide a ‘snapshot’ of Hours? network the views of some key interests at the time the 6 Religious groups research was taking place. • Revd Professor Stephen Orchard, head The interviews were open ended and of Westminster College focused on the interviewee’s perception of the

44 Appendix 3

history of temperance and its relevance to the richness of the material which was gathered. present, and on key themes in the present which Virginia Berridge also attended a conference in the review had identified as being important 2004 organised by the Civic Trust jointly with and how they might be translated into a policy the drinks industry, ‘Calling Time’, which agenda. These interviews were taped and notes provided a valuable insight into the views of were also taken. Permissions were given some key alcohol providers. according to the ethical criteria agreed through A talk based on the draft report was given at the LSHTM ethics committee at the outset of the the AGM of the National United Temperance project. Council in May 2005 and at the Prevention In addition the project work coincided with Research Center University of California at a period of intense media interest in alcohol- Berkeley in June 2005: the views and comments related public disorder which added to the of both audiences were helpful.

45