What happened?

What happened?

What was the single factor that caused the change?

Was there a change in the law?

Why do we now need to buy a ticket, in advance, if we want to go out to a pub on New Year's Eve?

What was wrong with drifting from one pub to another gradually accumulating friends until at midnight you'd amassed a large crowd?

I'm sure someone will argue that the tickets are supposed to reduce alcohol consumption. Rubbish! Moving from pub to pub gave the body a short break from drinking and allowed for a temporary sobering. Plus as you arrived in a new pub you'd have to make your way to the bar and attract the attention of bar staff. You would already have achieved that in the pub you'd just left. This means that in your new establishment alcohol delivery is delayed, thereby reducing consumption.

I think pubs believe it increases revenue. I disagree. I think people don't know which place they should buy a ticket for so they leave it and leave it and then don't bother. This means less people in pubs, less drinking, less revenue.

Newton Abbot isn't the greatest place for a night out, but New Year's Eve used to be good: hopping from pub to pub and ending up outside the clock tower at midnight. Some fools indulged their fetish for fancy dress and others just indulged.

So with this ridiculous ticket fiasco is it any wonder that at midnight last night I was in the bath?

Have I been in more inappropriate places at midnight on New Year's Eve? Yes, using the toilet in a stranger's house in Peterborough.

Now the Peterborough evening was something that could so easily have ended up on Crimewatch – all because Mark was with his girlfriend instead of me. More tomorrow?