Do happy hours lead to unhappy communities? That's the opinion of Keith Vaz, the chair of the home affairs select committee, whose members want the government to ban cut-price boozing in bars and stop supermarkets selling alcohol at a loss.
The suggestion, designed to end violence fuelled by binge drinking, follows a report by the committee which describes alcohol-related disorder as a "heavy burden" on police that diverts officers from fighting serious crime.
Three government departments are in talks over introducing a cut-price ban in "hot spots" where heavy drinking is a problem, according to the Independent.
Vaz told Radio 4's Today programme retailers must end a "pile it high, sell it cheap" culture around drink, and accused supermarkets of flouting the spirit of a voluntary code on alcohol sales.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), which said recently that 36 pubs are closing every week, backed a happy hour ban and blamed supermarkets for encouraging binge drinking. Cheap supermarket deals are cited by publicans as a key factor in their struggle to stay afloat.
But Richard Dodd, from the British Retail Consortium, told BBC Breakfast that supermarkets were being unfairly demonised.
One unimpressed former publican says she "laughed her socks off" when she heard the claims that happy hours encourage irresponsible drinking. Stopping binge drinking, she reckons, is simply a matter of restricting the time alcohol can be sold, in pubs and supermarkets.
