So people in the North-East drink more than anyone else. Well, that's something to be proud of, I don't think. This week's announcement that the Government is to tackle binge drinking as well as alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour is long overdue and probably way too late to have any real effect. In fact, I thought of asking the group of students who completely disrupted my street's sleep the other night by their yelling and bawling if putting warnings on the bottles of alcohol they had consumed would have made the slightest bit of difference to their behaviour. I think we all know the answer to that one. Changing the culture of a country is going to be a mighty task and it will take more than labels on bottles and 24-hour pubs to do it. Letting young people have access to pubs for longer is going to increase their drunkenness, not decrease it. Give them an inch and they'll take a mile. If they can stay out all night drinking, they will. And the following day? They'll just top themselves up and go to work. They may even drive there or operate machinery. Just because it's daytime doesn't mean they aren't tanked up. The Government seems to have got hold of the idea that young people only go out on a Friday or a Saturday night to have a skinful. Wrong. They drink before they go out to give them a good start and they go out any night of the week... every night of the week, even, if the money stretches that far. And with so many happy hours, drinks promotions or drinks-sponsored shows, clubs or events, there is always a way to get drunk fast - and cheaply. That's what needs to stop before anything else can change. A friend who used to work on the marketing side of the drinks industry was telling me the other day she frequently got requests from groups of young men and women seeking sponsorship from her company for their stag or hen nights. They honestly thought they'd be good for business if they guaranteed to drink so much alcohol over the space of one night, especially since many of them stressed they'd be starting at three in the afternoon. Regrettably, the words "alcohol" and "responsible" no longer seem to go together. With alcopops drunk like pop and priced like it too, the Government may well find its new strategy shot to pieces. Most famous fruit man I was truly saddened to hear of the sudden death at the tragically young age of 39 of Britain's most famous fruit man, Steve Thoburn, from Sunderland. Steve's long-running legal battle to allow him to sell fruit and veg by the pound brought him fame across the world. It took him into courts and before judges and made us all wonder just what harm could he possibly be doing to anyone by serving the people of his hometown the way they wanted serving. He seemed such a canny lad, down to earth and so good-humoured, even in legal defeat. Yet his frustration with a law which seems so unimportant in the giant scheme of things must have been immense and we should surely make it our business this weekend, in tribute to Steve and the Metric Martyr title he earned with blood, sweat and tears, to go and ask for a pound of apples and a stone of potatoes. After all, he paid for it. With his life. Luck with a lost handbag Travelling to London on the day newspaper headlines proclaimed it was "inevitable" that the capital should suffer a terrorist attack, made me feel a little more nervous than usual. Still, at the British Library in Euston Road everything seemed just like you'd expect in a library - hushed and calm, with no-one physically searching bags or rucksacks and people wandering around at will with their carrier bags and their briefcases, their shopping and their books. I was in the cafe - it's a great place to meet for a coffee and since it's only five minutes walk from King's Cross it's handy too - when I suddenly realised my handbag was not where it was supposed to be. I asked at the counter. No one had seen it. I was directed to the front desk of the building. A security man appeared and led me to the lost property office. No joy. We moved to another area, downstairs. The woman inside asked me to describe my bag and its contents and then, miraculously, produced it, intact. I have no idea who moved it or how close it came, if at all, to being blown up in a controlled explosion. You were lucky, said my colleague. By rights my bag, if left unattended, should have been the subject of a security alert. Weighing up special day In case you missed it, last week we had International Women's Day. A friend went into Newcastle to see what events were taking place to mark the day but having had a look in the library and various other places, decided the day was a bit of a damp squib and she'd just go home. On the way through the Grainger Market she thought she might get weighed on the big weighing machine - and guess what? The weigh-in, normally 20p, was free. Why? Because it was International Women's Day. So as a day to remember, you might say it did carry some weight after all! Danger parking too close to junctions It's good that parents parking illegally outside Tynemouth's Priory Primary School and other North Tyneside schools will face a £30 fine if they continue to put the lives of children at risk. Now can someone please do something about drivers who park at junctions so that it is impossible to see when it is safe to edge out into the road? I thought the Highway Code said you couldn't park within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction. The other night it took me eight minutes to get out of my street into the now infamous Osborne Road because of the cars parked nose to tail along the main road. There is absolutely no way of knowing if there is a gap in the traffic. Instead, you have to simply wait for a well-mannered driver to see your dilemma and stop to let you out. Be warned. There will be a major accident soon. So instead of sending parking wardens to check if permits are properly displayed on dashboards, please could we have some traffic wardens to actually make the streets safer? ********** It's Mother's Day tomorrow and my mum's 80th birthday at the end of this week. Neither event means anything to my mother as every day is Alzheimer's Day and that means - for her anyway - occasional smiles but no conversation, no recognition and no memories of happier times gone by. Mother's Day is mostly great but can be hard on many people - from the childless to those who've been bereaved. Yet sometimes all you really want is to shout at your mother and for her to shout back. Funny, isn't it? | 
