ONE of Scotland’s most senior churchmen has described plans by the Scottish executive to liberalise licensing laws as “ludicrous”, claiming they will lead to a further rise in drunkenness and violence.

Rev David Lacy, moderator of the Church of Scotland, said the country was already plagued by violent crime, caused by binge-drinking and a generation of “selfish” youngsters. He believes the situation has deteriorated over the past 20 years and claims it is now commonplace to see drunken children staggering home in the early hours. He has warned that proposals to allow pubs and clubs to stay open longer will lead to an upsurge in violent crime and disorder.

Rising levels of violence in Scotland have been aggravated by alcohol and drug abuse. New licensing regulations, due to come into force in 2007, will scrap statutory opening hours and give Scotland’s 32 licensing boards greater freedom to allow pubs, clubs and bars to stay open longer.

“I think it’s ludicrous to relax the licensing laws when we know (alcohol) is causing trouble. We should instead be curtailing them,” said Lacy. “When licensing laws were first extended, in line with some European countries, to combat binge-drinking, the very opposite proved true and anyone can see that by walking in our towns and cities at night.

“I see behaviour now that I would not have seen 10 or 20 years ago, with inebriated kids shouting, being unruly and staggering home in the early hours of the morning. While sometimes what lies at the bottom of these problems is selfishness, it is just as often a lack of direction in someone’s life.”

Joseph Devine, the Catholic Bishop of Motherwell, backed Lacy’s comments, adding: “I rather suspect the age group we are interested in — the younger generation who become involved in alcohol-related crime — will drink more, not less. Our large cities seem to be inveterately dangerous places on Friday and Saturday nights when a very different atmosphere prevails. Family breakdown and the rootlessness of youth, their lack of a sense of guilt, are also to blame.”

Their comments follow the publication last month of a United Nations report which said Scotland is already the most violent country in the developed world. It showed that more than 2,000 Scots are attacked every week — almost 10 times the official police figures. Figures published last week by the World Health Organisation showed Scotland has the second-highest murder rate in Western Europe.

Another study, due to be published by the University of California later this year, will claim that Scotland has a higher violent death rate than America, Israel, Uzbekistan, Chile and Uruguay.

Of 451 murder victims in Scotland between 200 and 2003, 50% were drunk at the time while almost half of 598 suspected killers over the same period were also drunk.

Each year, there are almost 2,000 alcohol-related deaths in Scotland — more than five a day — and about 10% of all admissions to accident and emergency departments are rooted in alcohol abuse. Binge-drinking is estimated to cost the Scottish economy more than £1 billion each year.

This week, Scotland’s reputation will suffer a further blow when a television programme by Donal MacIntyre, the investigative journalist, focuses on Glasgow’s violent culture. His film crew follows a paramedic who is confronted with two brutal knife attacks during a busy shift.

Tom Wood, the former deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders police and now Edinburgh’s drink and drugs czar, dismissed fears that a change in licensing laws would lead to an upsurge in crime.

“We are on the brink and this is the best opportunity we have to get a grip of this. The proposals give power and responsibility to boards and it’s right they should have the power to reward good behaviour and likewise to penalise the places that are not run well.”

The executive said: “The licensing bill will not relax licensing laws, it will provide a far greater degree of control for licensing boards with tougher enforcement and new provisions designed to tackle the harm caused by binge and underage drinking. It will allow 24-hour opening only in exceptional circumstances.”

• The Scottish Conservatives would adopt American-style “zero-tolerance” crime initiatives in an attempt to stem Scotland’s culture of violence.

  Under proposals announced by Annabel Goldie, the party’s home affairs spokeswoman, police forces would be ordered to “get tough” on even minor offences such as vandalism.

  Forces would also be obliged to publish weekly bulletins to identify the communities most ravaged by crime. Goldie said there must be more police officers on the streets and radical changes of the criminal justice system, including overhauling bail procedures, scrapping automatic early release and a review of the European convention on human rights which she says “obstructs” judges using their “common sense” to refuse bail.

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