Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization

by Edward Slingerland

2018, the impending closure of the Gay Hussar, a venerable and notorious restaurant and drinking hole in London’s Soho where politicians, journalists, and union leaders would mix, prompted an article by the journalist Adrian Wooldridge bemoaning the broader demise of the liquid lunch in British politics.60 It does an excellent job of highlighting what is lost as the influence of alcohol is gradually drained out of public life: The saddest reason is the rise of a professional political class. Drink provided a link between politics and society. The Labour Party recruited MPs and activists from working men’s clubs that existed in large part to provide workers with cheap drink. Ministers routinely let their guard down when they demolished the ministerial drinks cabinet with their civil servants and advisers. Today, both Labour and the Tories recruit their MPs from think-tanks and ministers keep up their guard at all times. The decline of political drinking has snapped yet another link between the political elite and the people that they are supposed to serve.