Underage drinking in London

First there was the ban on alcohol on London Transport and then yesterday there were news reports about a London-wide crackdown on underage drinking with a Facebook campaign by City Hall officials. Figures quoted indicate that 1,600 young people - some as young as 11 - required hospital treatment because of alcohol abuse and that 60% of 11 to 15 year olds drink.

Whilst trying to work out how to prevent kids getting hold of alcohol is laudable, why don't they investigate the reasons why kids turn to alcohol in the first place? It could be due to many reasons but I suspect that one of the main ones is boredom. What else do young adults do if they have nothing interesting to occupy them except get mindlessly drunk?

In West London, a local entrepreneur with a teenage son took over a local building and provides - with a reasonable ticket price of £5 (which most parents are more than happy to pay) - a music venue especially for 13 to 17 year olds. A range of professional and amateur bands play, there are stewards to keep an eye on things and there is no alcohol sold. It has been enormously successful - to the point where it has expanded into a range of guitar, song writing, studio skills and other classes as well as the occasional full day music festivals. And it provides a brilliant show case for London's young talent of all musical persuasions. Happy and safe teenagers (apart from those who go really mad in the moshing pit) and no alcohol!

There is so much PR posturing in the corporate world about "corporate social responsibility" I don't understand why more organisations don't put their cash behind similar projects to provide relevant, stimulating and appropriate entertainment for young people so that they have no need for alcohol. Think about all those companies with facilities that could easily have a little bit of time allocated each week to young adult use...

And apologies for stating the obvious, but couldn't the Government just overturn its recent, ridiculous "open all hours" licensing laws to set the right example amongst their older role models?