"New non-shatter pint glass introduced to prevent pub attacks", according to the Mirror; or, if you prefer news for adults, "British Toast New Shatterproof Pint Glass" via the AP.
The issue here is, ostensibly, that of "glassing"-- i.e. smashing (or slashing) one's broken beer bottle or lager glass across a fellow pub-patron's facial region. I'm not going to argue that this, specifically, constitutes a no-no by pretty much any rational moral standard. I would enquire as to how much public money has been expended on this project; as opposed to, say, trying to figure out why such an evidently substantial section of the national population is so consistently bored, pissed off and frustrated that they feel the need to regularly set out with the specific aim of getting shitfaced and breaking heads in the first place. But I digress (again).
My real point-- and this kinda ties back to what I mentioned at the beginning of my last post-- is that a significant element of the British "binge-drinking culture" (as it's soundbitten nowadays; and it's nothing new, whatever David Cameron might try to tell you) is the cultural association of this macho, bad-boy stereotype with the act of getting pissed (and, yes, getting into fights as a consequence) purely for the sake of it. I can't speak for any of the younger folks, but for my generation, one's first glassing (received and/or administered) was practically a rite of passage in itself for young males, and seldom resulted in any permanent disfiguring injuries (and as far as I know, in terms of brawling etiquette, smashing a bottle over someone's head is still considered a less extreme response than using a chair, for example). But it's the fact that this pattern of social behaviour is regarded as, if not exactly desirable, then at least inevitable by such a large proportion of the population that I find interesting... especially compared with the trend in public attitudes towards smoking, for example.
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