What did the Romans ever do for us?

“What did the Romans ever do for us?” Monty Python questioned in ‘The Life of Brian’, before going on to list sanitation, medicine, peace and education amongst their many contributions. Well, the Romans also gave us pubs. And this nation was forever grateful. That is, perhaps, until this point in history.

Britain has, for nearly two thousand years, been a pub culture. With the introduction of the Roman Road system came also the need to have taverns for travellers to rest, feed and relax. The public house quickly became an essential fixture of community life in England. It is so integral to how modern English civilisation was formed that, at the crossroads of any village, you are likely to find two buildings; a church and a public house. 

Unfortunately, with St. Patrick’s Day on the horizon we can expect that, alongside the usual marketing onslaught of Guinness hats, drinks promotions, shamrocks and Irish-themed pub nights, we will also be inundated with news stories, adverts and opinion pieces about the disgusting state of youths, yob culture and binge-drinking. 

Suggested efforts to tackle this situation generally involve increased taxation on alcohol. A hike in prices is far more likely to adversely affect the clients of a working man’s pub or student bar than it would the clientele of a wine-bar in Canary Wharf. And it is still unlikely to provide an actual solution to the problem. It is the British drinking culture that must be addressed.

The comparison with European drinking habits is often used to highlight the appalling state of our nation but generally does so by demonising certain societal groups such as 'youths', 'yobs' or 'students'.  However, one of the major factors that contribute to the relaxed nature of drinking habits in France or Germany has always been their more casual attitude toward closing times.  The introduction of late night licensing, far from being a catalyst for increased over-indulgence, has allowed many British people the freedom to drink at their own pace and not require that  panicked final rush to the bar. Indeed, It was often the urgency and drama of the bell ringing and those ominous words, ‘last orders’ that generally instigated a final and frantic melee of drinks purchases.

Affecting any change to the long-standing habits of a nation will undoubtedly take time and all the diatribes and outrage of our politicians as they try to find convenient scapegoats is not part of the solution, just another form of middle-class vote-grabbing. Neither is it likely that heavier taxation or the removal of drinks promotions will curb these drinking tendencies; it will merely stretch the finances and debts of those who already have little leeway in their budgets.  

We are all a part of this problem and cannot seek to blame certain sectors of our society for our own cultural issues. For all the good that will do us we might as well blame The Romans; they introduced us to both pubs and taxation, in which case who knows, maybe vomitariums and gladiators will be next?




From February 2010