Friday night in a front room in Birmingham and a group of middle-class girls are huddled giggling around plant pots filled with booze sucking what they call a ‘dirty pint’ through straws. They have combined cut-priced spirits, alcopops and wine into a disgusting mix that they hope will get them plastered as quickly and cheaply as possible — before going out on the town in a ritual known as ‘pre-loading’. Down in Bristol, a glassy-eyed student holds out her ‘scorecard’, a record of her drinking exploits at ‘pub golf’ where bars are treated like holes with a suggested number of shots. It reads: ‘A pint of snakebite (lager and cider), a bottle of Vodka Kick (a vodka-based alcopop), a cocktail, a pint of cider, a glass of wine, a spirit and mixer, a shot and a Jagermeister, (a 70 per cent proof German liqueur) and Red Bull.’ And it’s far from closing time. And in Liverpool, three young women are pre-loading on something they call ‘Cheeky Vimto’ to get drunk before hitting the local bars. Read More here...
