UK - ban on under 30s buying booze without ID

[buckthesystem]

What! I don't believe I am seeing such a silly statement in print: "........it means staff will challenge anyone lucky enough to look under 30 to prove their age before they can buy booze".. It's about time this tired old, patronisingly idiotic statement was seen for what it is: A silly cynical fob-off.

I hope this supermarket goes out of business, due to customers having more than two brain cells to rub together leaving it in droves.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/display.var.204..._without_id.php

Ban on under-30s buying booze without ID

By Gerran Grimshaw

BORN after 1977? Wanting to buy alcohol?

Then you better make sure you are carrying some proof of your age next time you pop down to one York supermarket.

Bosses at the Askham Bar branch of Tesco, in Tadcaster Road, have introduced a new alcohol sales policy - and it means staff will challenge anyone lucky enough to look under 30 to prove their age before they can buy booze.

Since November 2005 and the introduction of the new licensing laws, the company has adhered to the Think 21 scheme, whereby staff are trained to ask anyone who looks under 21 to prove they are 18.

Now they have extended the scheme.

A spokesman for Tesco said Think 30 had been introduced at the end of January on a trial basis.

"We are running sporadic trials across the country," he said.

"When local authorities go into shops and find a 15-year-old girl has been served in a test case, it's not the case that the shop is serving young kids alcohol, it's just that staff can't always tell ages accurately.

The issue of underage drinking is very important. We have to take this very strong line on it."

He said the supermarket giant was successful because it listened to its shoppers.

"If it proves really unpopular, with customers thinking it's ridiculous, we'll reconsider," he said.

"If customers think it's a really good idea that cuts down on underage drinking, we'll keep it."

But councillors and shoppers reacted with surprise at the draconian measures.

James Cook from The Press attempted to buy alcohol at Tesco but was stopped in his tracks.

[sweetycakes]

S'okay.......I don't need the alcohol anymore.

I got me a stress reduction kit

[David of Derby]

The lunatics have taken over the asylum...

[buckthesystem]

The lunatics have taken over the asylum...

That's it Sweetycakes, give his racehorse some sleeping pills (coming from Derby he is bound to have something to do with horse racing) because:

He called you a lunatic!!

shock horror

[David of Derby]

Wrong kind of Derby. We're a railway town, or were, anyway.

The lunatics comment was referring to the Tesco management...

[Adarian]

That under 30 thing for booze and smokes has been in place in Canada for several years now.

[Guest LadyC]

of course it is ridiculous... but they're way behind the times. most states in america have been doing this for years.

here's an ironic twist that shows the stupidity of america though. legal age for alcohol (at least in most states, if not all) is 21. you have to produce ID until you are 30.

legal age to buy tobacco products is 18. but you have to produce ID until the age of FORTY.

and the biggest irony? i actually have been carded from time to time (i'm 43) for the purchase of cigarettes. but i don't recall EVER being carded for alcohol, except for the first couple of years after the legal age changed from 18 to 19 and then to 21.

[buckthesystem]

of course it is ridiculous... but they're way behind the times. most states in america have been doing this for years.

here's an ironic twist that shows the stupidity of america though. legal age for alcohol (at least in most states, if not all) is 21. you have to produce ID until you are 30.

legal age to buy tobacco products is 18. but you have to produce ID until the age of FORTY.

and the biggest irony? i actually have been carded from time to time (i'm 43) for the purchase of cigarettes. but i don't recall EVER being carded for alcohol, except for the first couple of years after the legal age changed from 18 to 19 and then to 21.

This all proves without a doubt that this has nothing at all to do with tobacco or alcohol but everything to do with producing ID.

After all you have to justify the existance of an id card. The only purpose of an id card is so that various people can demand production of it and if you don't have to show it all the time, what is the point in having it?

In UK they are picking on young people because they have grown up with this "big brother mentality" and think that having their papers demanded is normal. It is only the oldies like me who question it all the time. I have always questioned it when ever anyone has tried to demand ID from me (which isn't often in NZ, but it is getting worse) and I have always won (meaning that there is no actual law requiring it, and government employee/bank clark/what ever is "just trying it on").

If we can change the attitude of our young people (and also the odd silly middle aged woman who thinks she has been "complimented" by being asked for ID - eewww ) and question everything I think it would make for a better society.

[David of Derby]

Why is carrying and presenting ID a problem? Various things are restricted by age, alcohol, tobacco, etc and a single ID card solves all the ridiculous faffing about trying to prove identity with passports, driving licenses and so on. The only reason I object to the proposed ID card system in the UK is the cost that will passed to the citizens in obtaining them. The government should pay for them out of the vast fortune paid in tax every year.

[nebula]

Hey - if you are well over the age of 21 and you are carded - take it as a compliment!

Doesn't it feel good to look young?