Why we don't need all-day drinking

Another report has shown that the number of rapes after drinks had been spiked with date rape drugs was actually pretty low. Most women got paralytic because of the vast amount of booze they'd drunk, and nothing to do with spiked drinks at all.

Meanwhile, our town centres are awash with vomit, A&E departments crammed with the various side effects of too much booze - from collapse to stab wounds. On average, every day, someone is killed on the roads because of a drunk driver. Drink driving deaths, having gone down for many years, are now starting to rise again.

Britain's teenagers are among the heaviest drinkers in Europe. Binge drinking is rising every year and last year was identified in a Government white paper as one of the key public health issues.

You can see that 24 hour drinking isn't going to help. Anyone can see that, apart from the Government.

24 hour drinking will never turn the British into civilised drinkers like the continentals - who relish their drink, sip it, enjoy it, take their time over it, know when to stop.

The British way - right back into the mists of history - has always been to get a month or more's worth of drink down your neck in one glorious session and collapse into oblivion with maybe a fight or two on the way.

When we did that every few weeks, it was no real problem. But soon we'll be able to do it 24 hours a day, every day. And I'm still not sure who wants it.

£77M. That's how much shop assistant Dolores McNamara won in the Euro lottery on Friday. It is a terrific amount. And already the pious, priggish commentators have wrung their hands and said it could ruin her life.

Rubbish.

Well no, she hasn't done much to deserve her vast fortune. But then neither have a lot of rich people who just managed to be born to rich parents. Dolores is no brighter or dimmer than they - and, like them, can buy plenty of good advice. Or just follow her instincts - like Lottery winners Paul and Thea Bristow, who are spending a biggish chunk of their £15m win taking over 50 of their local cub and scout troop and parents to Canada for a fortnight. Their only other extravagance so far has been a new kitchen. That's what I call not getting carried away.

True, there are Lottery winners who have no clue about how to cope with money. The memory of pools winner Viv Nicholson always looms large. But there are plenty of bright young things who inherit the family fortunes and a long line of silver spoons and are equally clueless. And never think of taking scout troops to Canada.

Meanwhile, Dolores has already thrown a great party and promised to share her good fortune with friends and family. Maybe that's the difference - she's actually going to enjoy having all that money. And the rest of us can just get back to work and dream.

APOLOGIES to the woman driving a dark red Toyota Avensis estate up the A1 near Durham last Tuesday evening, who must have wondered at the strange mad couple waving so enthusiastically at her.

Sorry, but your car used to belong to us.

So, sad I know, it wasn't you we were waving at - it was the car.

THERE has been a spate of accidents involving children on trampolines. But before we start clamouring about having them banned, or regulated, or licensed or some other foolish notion, let us consider.

Any physical exercise has an element of risk, from blisters to broken backs. We can be sensible and minimise risks, but the only way to avoid them altogether would be to sit on the sofa all day. And then we'd die of heart attacks and obesity instead.

Our children are probably the least active generation in the history of the world. They are not allowed to roam free. There is far less sport in schools. Playing fields are vanishing. When the Olympics come to Britain we are guaranteed gold medals in what we're best at - sitting and watching.

So, yes of course, take care with that trampoline. But please don't lock it away. Anything that gets children moving about is always going to do more good than harm.

SURGEON Satya Agarwala, who normally spends his time on major operations in a Sussex hospital, gave up a week's holiday to clear up some of the backlog of minor work, mainly for people suffering from painful and limiting conditions.

In a disused centre, with a team of staff, he conducted 70 operations, slashed the waiting lists and made 70 people's lives much more comfortable.

His radical approach makes him the Bob Geldof of minor surgery.

We're not asking every surgeon in the UK to give up their holidays. But let's hope it inspires some hospital managers to wake up and take a fresh look at their problems and how to solve them.

MELISSA Miller, a successful professional woman, was married for less than three years but has a divorce settlement of an astonishing £5m from ex husband Alan. Nice work if you can get it.

Alan Miller left her to live with someone else, but the huge settlement was apparently because, according to the judges, Mrs Miller was entitled to expect a longer term future on a higher plane of affluence than before her marriage.

So it's 2005 and childless women are still allowed to think of marriage as a meal ticket. This is the equality we marched for?

Dear Sharon,

MY husband was made redundant at 50 and six years later, has only had a few temporary jobs. It is very demoralising for him when he knows he has still got a lot to offer. The Government wants us all to work until we're 67 or 70. Never mind 67, he would be happy to be working at 57.

J.T. Darlington

Dear Sharon,

BOOKS for small children certainly do become part of the family. My daughters' favourite was Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy, about a mother elephant, Mrs Large, constantly pestered by her brood, even in the bath. One of my daughters is now married, the other about to start her last year of university, but whenever I retreat upstairs to the bath with a glass of wine and a good book, we still call it "A Mrs Large Moment".

Dee Clark, Durham