English Audio Request

Ah, yes, the consumers. What do they think? Time to return to the heart of binge-drinking Britain, this time to Bridge Street in Guildford, a 100-metre stretch clustered with huge drinking halls, each one thumping with music, and offering cheap drink deals. There's a Yates and a Wetherspoons, a Bar Med and a Bar Zuka and a club fittingly called 'The Drink'. In Edwards, another uberpub with a dedicated shots bar and pitchers of Malibu cocktail at £7, I find Gareth. He's cheery and a little pissed - but not as pissed as he's going to be. 'I'll probably have about 10 bottles of beer tonight and a couple of pints.' I wonder how many units that is. 'About 25 to 30,' he says. He manages a pub so he knows. I point out that the weekly limit for men is 28 units. He shrugs. 'I can have a good time if I drink five pints or 10 pints. Basically everybody here is going to get out of control. That's what this is about.'
Standing with him is his mate, Mark. 'I work my arse off from Monday to Friday as an engineer in the petrochemical business and during the week I don't want to go out,' he says. 'So on Friday nights I'm going to have some beers. I'm going to have 10 or 11 beers.' But how do you feel on Saturday morning? He laughs. 'I feel like shit, but I don't have to go to work. Yes I may be damaging myself, but that's my right.'
And then there's their friend, Vicky. Nice, sensible-looking Vicky who manages a sports shop and who has had the day off. She has been drinking since lunchtime, and is clutching a bucket-glass of red wine which she admits is 'seriously rank'. How many has she had? 'I don't know. I think I've drunk myself sober.' How would she respond to the government which says her behaviour is dangerous?
She leans forward and shouts at my notebook: 'I would say, "Fuck off." I work hard and I want to play hard.'
And there, in that statement, is the debate on binge drinking distilled. The doctors, the ministers and the police may see it as an argument about violent crime, facial scars and anti-social behaviours. But for Britain's binge drinkers themselves it's not about any of this. It's about a spanking good night out, and nothing else.