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Antisocial Behaviour

I have some sympathy with what the right hon. Lady has said. However, what we really need, whichever Government are in power, is to find a system whereby the police do not waste their time, which means that when they apply their time, it is effective and has an outcome. We do not want endless visits by the police that achieve nothing. I say to those on both Front Benches that we need to focus on the quality of police time and on how police time is used. We now have support officers, and we can make things much more effective. The police's task has been made much more difficult by some of the Government's measures. One measure, which the Prime Minister himself has criticised, is 24-hour drinking. I was in conversation last night with Byron Rhodes, the chairman of Leicestershire police authority. We talked for about an hour, and he said, "Look, two o'clock is surely enough, isn't it? You should see the amount of police resources it takes to deal with nightclubs after that." Does it make sense for clubs to close at six o'clock in the early hours of the morning? Are we really a nation that needs to drink through the night? I do not think that we are, and I think that we have proved that these changes do not work. We are not a continental nation—we do not naturally sit there with a sausage and a lager at six o'clock in the morning. [Interruption.] I was thinking of my time in Germany, but I had better move on fast, because I am getting into a lot of trouble. We should revisit the alcohol laws. The licensing laws were brought in during the first world war, because munitions workers were getting so drunk. That was happening in one city north of the border in particular—I will not defame it this evening—so the licensing laws were brought in for a purpose. We really need to revisit the issue. Another problem, which has been addressed on many occasions in the House, is cheap alcohol and how it is purveyed. If it is a loss leader in supermarkets, it will contribute to the problems. The crime problem has been exacerbated by the downward pressure on, and the destruction of, the traditional British pub. The number of pubs going out of business is tragic. I could mention the Dog and Duck in my constituency—it is happening all the time. People used to go to these places for community. If people sit at home drinking lager behind laptops, we will have criminals—we will have people who cannot form relationships and who do not have friends. We should protect the pubs. A related issue is the removal of dartboards from pubs. I will not use the G-word—gentrified—but there is definitely an attempt to push places upmarket, and that means taking out the dartboards. A survey has been done on this. The removal of dartboards is a great tragedy, because darts is a national sport. I have played it, although I do not play it very much and do not pretend to be a great darts player, but I do not like to think of pubs losing their dartboards. In Leicestershire, we have skittles. We have a lot of skittles alleys—they are great fun, and a lot of pubs still have them. How about the Minister or my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench and who might be in power in a few months, doing a bit to support pubs that keep traditional games? Why can we not offer some incentives? It would not necessarily be very expensive. Do we really want empty, gloomy pubs that close down? I do not think so. Of course, the smoking ban has not helped. I voted against it and I am really pleased that I did, because the more that I look at it, the more I think that it was a great mistake not to gradually phase it in—[Interruption.] I am not going to hold the right hon. Members for Salford and for Don Valley on this one, although I have held them for most of the debate, which is unusual. However, it was a mistake to put everybody outside. And what about the environmental issues? Someone tell me the cost of these massive gas cookers outside—