The chairman of a major pub chain has taken a swipe at popular drunken celebrities and sports stars for setting a bad example to youngsters and fuelling the binge drinking culture.
The chairman of a major pub chain has taken a swipe at popular drunken celebrities and sports stars for setting a bad example to youngsters and fuelling the binge drinking culture among them.
The chairman of the JD Wetherspoon pub chain criticized pop stars and sportsmen for encouraging Britain's binge drinking culture.Tim Martin said that the rise in alcohol-related disorder was partly caused by the antics of inebriated celebrities, which are copied by the general public.
"It is not socially unacceptable to go on a binge - that's the problem," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
"Although it is often perceived that pubs benefit from these sorts of occasions, it is our experience that they are often bad for the pub trade, since they are difficult for pub staff to deal with and can be intimidating for the majority of customers,” he added.
JD Wetherspoon insisted that clamping down on under-age drinkers would not solve the problem of anti-social behaviour.
"Even if you stopped every 16 and 17-year-old going into pubs, you would not stop binge drinking," Martin said.
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