This govenrment is very disingenuous in this as in other areas. After all, they passed the laws establishing 24 hour drinking. If we want to stop a local convenience store selling alcohol 24 hours a day, we have to raise a storm of protest. The local council don't care; the police go with the flow.

Robert Bothwell, London, UK

Sad.
Why should supermakets not be affected .Close their sales outlets for a year - monitor the difference.Then review the whole policy.
Drinkers will always drink - pubs home parks etc.

Keith Skelton , Colombo, Sri Lanka

In the Mediteranian it is usually the Brits who get drunk, not the locals, other countries have relaxed laws but no problems. The Goveernment against advice increased the drinking hours. The laws are there but not enforced. who is going to read the label before having a drink. Charge for treatment.

Mike, Paphos, Cyprus

I think they are just miffed because a drinker is getting twice the drink for half the tax...I mean price....

Janice, London,

Perhaps all this will be resolved now that we are in a recession, meaning that less people will have the money to spend. In the main, this is a young person's thing, with the majority leaving it behind when families come along. Perhaps also it is time to revert to the 10pm closing time?

Celia Godwin, Eastleigh, Hants

Code of Conduct? It just shows who really controls drinking in the UK: the brewers, not the government. Not surprising the government isn't interested also given its huge tax on alcohol.

Barrie Redfern, Zdole, Slovenia

The Government now plans to get rid of Happy Hours
And in it place introduce Miserable days.
This will be in keeping with its Miserable handling of the economy and the untold Misery yet to come.

Mike, Berlin,

It is an offence to serve alcohol to anyone who is, or appears to be drunk. This is not enforced. Banning happy hour will do nothing to address the issue of drunkenness on our streets, it will simply mean that pubs which employ a happy hour to desperately keep their head above water will go under

James, Hereford, UK

Don't waste more of our money by putting warning labels on drinks. Warning labels on cigarettes are just ignored and have made no difference.

peter, Oxford,

Oppression, oppression, oppression

paul, poole, england

Great! More people are going instead to the supermarket, where you can have more beer for less! The sad part is that you take the "social drinking" part out of it: they are going to drink it at home, or in the streets...

Gracy, Guarulhos, Brazil

No doubt the government will still be able to dine out in the house of parliment, on subsidised booze and food, whist we pay ever higher costs. and if they dont go there they can goto there local pub run a tab and put it on expenses

james, portishead, england

You no why most people drink so much? Government regulation. They force you to drink to put up with their crap. Taxes, taxes and more taxes and now this . Remember the Boston Tea Party? You lost a continent over that one. As long as we work and earn our own money we can spend it anyway we like.

Bill, Aden, U.S.A

The government should not have a say on this. Pubs and bars should be allowed to set whetever price they see fit. This seems to be a concerted campaign against the local pub, which is already on its knees from the triple whammy of no-smoking laws, cheap supermarket booze and the economic crisis.

Spike, Liverpool, UK

How I agree with Brenda. Happy Hours are perfectly acceptable in most of the world. It used to be an offence for a landlord to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk. If it is still then enforce the law against the supplier. Why keep treating adults like pariahs. Remember they are voters too

Patrick Devlin, Taipei, Taiwan

Let them bring it in - they've already buggered the pub trade by raising duty to offset the VAT reduction! Binge drinking comes from the supermarkets selling beer so cheap - not pubs still being 3 times their price in happy hours! Leave us hard working publicans alone - target the cheap 24packs!

Ed, Hereford,

Make it more expensive for everyone to go out and blow off steam after a long week at work where we work more hours and pay higher taxes that go to the same people who are doing this? Orwell must have had this lot in mind when he wrote Animal Farm, the pigs can do it but it's bad for us isn't it...

geoff, bristol, uk

If prices were the real issue, we would all drink at home. The UK's drink culture is a unique thing. As far as I see it, this move won't prevent drinking from happening but will simply make pubs feel like a place we are being watched and judged. And this comes from someone who rarely goes to the pub

Dave T, Lille, France

What a surprise !!
Smokers have been vilified and are now pariahs of society. Now is the turn of the drinkers. Next is the fatties.
All the anti-smoking brigade laughed when smokers were driven out of pubs and now it's their turn to feel like social outcasts.
We could have said 'You will be next'

Brenda Orsler, Essex,