No it's not
It's not £1000 fine and the sack, 99.99% of the time it will be a 17 year-old going and getting pissed with his or her mates and no-one will be any the wiser. And any 16 or 17 year-old worth their salt will have a fake ID anyway, I know, I used to manufacture them when I was at school. I did a mean line in "Prove it!" cards straight off the school's art room colour printer.

What, do the government and police send particularly old-looking children to try and buy booze from shitty supermarkets (and note, I never get this kind of crap from Sainsbury's) just to check that their staff have been trained to recite the party line?

Like I said, when I was 14 I looked the oldest so I used to go and buy booze and we'd go and get pissed down the park. No-one got fined, no-one got the sack and on the few occasions that anyone asked me for ID I had two failsafe options - firstly an "I am 18" badge from a birthday card and secondly a hand-written note from my mother, which was never refused.

Maybe I grew up in a more innocent time, but I fail to see why this is such a big deal these days, to the extent where I have to prove my age despite having a drinking career spanning nearly two decades. Is it so that when they finally introduce ID cards for everyone, we're all so cowed and used to the concept that we just roll over and bleat "if you haven't got anything to hide you've nothing to fear"?

Christ, am I the only one who thinks that we should stand up to these mealy-mouthed neo-fascists who think that just because they sit behind a till they can see your ID on demand?

Oh, and it's always in Nowheresville, The Provinces, too. I haven't been ID'ed in London, ever. Perhaps because London attracts a more intelligent class of tillmonkey who can actually judge a person's age accurately?
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 7 May 2008, 15:35, Reply)