“Politicians have used alcohol to try and show they are normal,” said Thurnell-Read. However, these incidents in Downing St. feel “like there is something inverted here. The general population is saying, ‘We’ve made all these sacrifices and they’re down in Westminster having a jolly old time.’”
For Mick Maddams, a construction sales engineer in London, food and drink play an important role socializing with clients and he goes out around four times a week, though he didn’t during the various lockdowns.
“If you go out and you’re not drinking it’s considered quite ‘Ugh, let’s not do it then,’” said Maddams, 49. “You don’t want to be the only one sitting around drinking a water.”
On a light evening out, he said he will drink seven to eight pints of beer and a bottle of wine. On the days he doesn’t entertain clients he will often run a half marathon to stay in shape.
“I need to earn my money, I need to get my contracts,” he said of going out, in a phone interview while he was out to lunch with clients. “People buy from people — it’s a relationship business.”
However, drinking habits in the U.K. seem to be slowly changing, especially among young people, some studies show.
A study looking at the proportion of people ages 16 to 24 who consumed alcohol in the last week fell from a high of 67 percent in 2005 to 41 percent in 2019, according to NHS Digital. A University of Sheffield report released in 2018 also showed a drop among that age bracket who reported drinking “nowadays,” declining from 90 percent to 78 percent.
At the same time, as some young people are changing their habits, companies are increasingly aware that alcohol in and around the workplace may alienate some workers, according to Richard Piper, the head of Alcohol Change, a nonprofit that advocates to end harm from alcohol.
“There is a big change happening whereby workplaces, and we are working with some of the biggest workplaces in the U.K., and they are all working out that if they talk about well-being that alcohol is part of that,” he said. “That shift has taken us by surprise.”
The pandemic will likely further change the way people drink, according to experts.
Prior to lockdown, Dominic Emery, a technical adoption specialist in London, went to the pub with work colleagues at least once a week. In the nearly two years since the pandemic hit, he’s been working from home.
This past Friday night, he met a friend at a pub for the first time in months.
“I’ve filled my time with other things,” said Emery, 51, who lives in Hertfordshire, just outside London. “I’ve seen my family more, I’ve taken up other activities. I do enjoy that social catch-up with colleagues and friends, but I don’t think it’ll go back to what it was before.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
