As I read this article in the Daily Mail today I was horrified.
For 300 years, it has been the highlight of the summer calendar for the well-off and well-connected. It is a stately institution for goodness sake. But nowadays it has become an event to dress up (the ladies) and 'have a good time'.
On your marks, gets set, we're off: drink as much as we can in the shortest space of time i.e down a couple of pints before the horses have turned the first bend. Be flat on our backs or in the middle of a fight as the horse reach the Royal Mile!
What I want to know is exactly when 'have a good time' became a euphemism for getting totally drunk, fight, laugh, shout, cop off with someone you don't know, disgrace yourself and have a raging hangover the next day! Is that really 'having a good time?'
Do we need to be drunk to be able to communicate with our fellow men (or women)? Why can't we just chat, laugh and joke with our mates over a couple of drinks, whilst also enjoying why we are at Ascot in the first place - to see the horse racing!
I am not sure if the "£98 bottles of Laurent Perrier Rose Champagne" that were been thrown around were brought as corporate entertainment or by the individuals themselves. If it was Corporate entertainment where is the Corporate's social responsibility policy when you need it? Surely encouraging guests and employees to drink excessively is not very socially responsible. If the individuals brought the Champagne themselves - well more fool them.
Why do the British do this? We drink to excess, we are rude, we fight, is it any wonder we get very few points in the European Song Contest (Jedward aside!). No one likes us.
Why do a small few have to ruin it for the majority?
It was very good timing on the part of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to release the results of their survey published by the Guardian "Parents' behaviour 'has strong impact on teen drinking'.
What must our children think of us running around a racecourse drunk and fighting?
