Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 156 posts

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#61

Post by varjag »

vacri wrote: post #55
cheerioty wrote: post #3

Reads like a joke, but is actually the bloody truth. In the last 6 months, ordering my favourite mix drink resulted in either: - Getting the drink, but had to drink it at the bar were they could "supervise" me! (no joke!) - Getting the drink, only when ordered seperately and "promise" to not mix it in the same glass - Get the first one, second one denied - Direct rejection, because "too late already/wrong day of the…

You could come down to Melbourne, it's got a very healthy nightlife and music scene. It has a little bit of wowserism happening at the moment (no new licenses for bars open past 1am anymore, for example, and some more restrictions on 'music pubs'), but as far as I'm aware, no legislation about timing requirements on mixed drinks (which sounds truly crazy). The main article reads like a horror story for nightlife. It'…

> ..there's a lot of conservative christian politicians in power at the federal level, and at some state levels, and they don't reflect modern australian values.

How come they don't, if they consistently keep getting elected?

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#63

Post by madaxe_again »

Symbiote wrote: post #60
madaxe_again wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, in the UK, it is illegal to serve pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol, but it's rarely enforced. This is why many bars will pour the shot in a highball, and hand you a can of red bull, so what you then do is your responsibility, not theirs.

Are you sure? I can't find anything online that supports that. Many bars serve other drinks (vodka and orange, gin and tonic, etc) unmixed, so you can mix it to taste. Buckfast is still sold, and that contains caffeine. Kahlúa too.

Ah, think you're right - this might just be Scotland where it's actually the law, but was certainly the common practice when I was working bars up north.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#64

Post by watmough »

My two abiding memories of nightlife in Aberdeen, Scotland are

1) Almost getting mugged - when I was not in the best part of the city admittedly,

2) Seeing a guy staggering about that had just been hit in the face with a broken bottle.

A few episodes like that, add in sensationalist reporting and activist local politicians and you could easily imagine a situation where local night-life gets thrown out with the bathwater.

People get drunk. They fight and they do stupid shit. It's what they do.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#65

Post by nl »

madaxe_again wrote: post #58
chris_wot wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your chances of being assaulted in Newcastle before the lockout laws were very high. I doubt you would be having much fun in the Emergency Department, getting stitched up.

I have no info on what effect the licensing changes had, but I can vouch that Newcastle could be genuinely scary on a Saturday night. You haven't lived until you've hidden under a table while pint glass missiles hurtle overhead around a revolving dance floor on a boat on the Tyne.

I think that's the other Newcastle. This one is north of Sydney (I guess they are both north of Sydney, but there's a bit of a hike to the one on the Tyne...)

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#66

Post by Khaine »

chris_wot wrote: post #43
Khaine wrote: post #25

There are to many moralists in Australia. They abhor people having a fun night out.

Moralising against the moralists, huh? There are far too many assaults caused by alcohol, and the levels of alcoholism and domestic violence caused by alcohol in Australia is a real problem.

Prove it.

Alcohol consumption in Australia has been steadily falling, and yet only now is it a massive social problem.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#67

Post by johnchristopher »

varjag wrote: post #61
vacri wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could come down to Melbourne, it's got a very healthy nightlife and music scene. It has a little bit of wowserism happening at the moment (no new licenses for bars open past 1am anymore, for example, and some more restrictions on 'music pubs'), but as far as I'm aware, no legislation about timing requirements on mixed drinks (which sounds truly crazy). The main article reads like a horror story for nightlife. It'…

> ..there's a lot of conservative christian politicians in power at the federal level, and at some state levels, and they don't reflect modern australian values. How come they don't, if they consistently keep getting elected?

A wild guess: The most influential backers are Christians. They have the money to lend to the party so it can build effective marketing and political campaign to go after the rest of the voters.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#68

Post by angry_octet »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #46
chris_wot wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are. The lockout laws actually come from Newcastle, which had an even worse problem. Alcohol fueled violence has been and remains a massive problem in Australia. In fact, drinking in Australia remains a massive problem: we have some of the worst cases of binge-drinking and alcoholism rates in the world. We have a list of dangerous pubs in NSW: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-27/north-coast-pub-tops-l...

Interesting, recently there was a study posted on HN that it depends on genetics whether or not someone becomes violent when drunk. Australia started as a prison colony, maybe there is a connection there?

Can someone please flag the above post as idiotic?

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#69

Post by briandear »

jfoutz wrote: post #9
sqldba wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Innocent people kept getting murdered on King St (a popular bar and night life destination, as well as prostitution or at least erotic joints, and possibly some drug use.) A few years back there was a spate of "King Hits" which is when one person hits another person in the head and immediately knocks them unconscious, usually through random chance rather than any kind of skill, but meaning that person then bears the…

U.S. liquor laws are weird and vary state by state. In my state bars require an expensive license to sell booze. Bars associated with crimes, DUI, assault and battery, manslaughter get fined and ultimately the license is revoked. When a license is revoked, alcohol can no longer be served at that location, ever. Servers themselves face hefty fines when they're found to be serving someone who's drunk. Get a DUI, your w…

Getting a liquor license in France is no picnic either. On top of that you have Kafka-esque regulations on the actual running of the business. Countries, especially socialist ones seem to not understand the value of entrepreneurship and its discouraged at every stage.

In the US (where I have a bit of experience opening bars and restaurants,) the regulations can be somewhat intense in terms of health, building codes and alcohol licensing, but the process is typically standardized and generally fair. In France, much of your success depends on if the local mayor is on your side or not. I am leaving NYC out of my generalization because, from what I've heard, the A,B,C inspections can be highly corrupt: paying off someone to increase your rating; failing an inspection for seemingly innocuous stuff (a cracked floor tile in the kitchen, for example is considered a 'violation.')

The market liquidity in hospitality is rather low because of huge barriers to entry. To me the concept of an alcohol license is rather Byzantine.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#70

Post by varjag »

johnchristopher wrote: post #67
varjag wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ..there's a lot of conservative christian politicians in power at the federal level, and at some state levels, and they don't reflect modern australian values. How come they don't, if they consistently keep getting elected?

A wild guess: The most influential backers are Christians. They have the money to lend to the party so it can build effective marketing and political campaign to go after the rest of the voters.

Given that the majority of Australians are Christian it would indeed make sense that the most influential backers are Christians too. Probably been like that for a long time?

Still there might be something in their campaigns that resonates with the views of the majority. One wouldn't imagine them consistently winning fair elections in predominantly Hindu or Muslim country, no matter the campaign spending.

Post reply on HN