Alcohol consumption has emerged as a political issue

Officials will ban drinking contests in bars and force pub owners to offer patrons tap water in a bid to help tackle Britain's boozy culture, the government said on Tuesday.

Doctors and health lobbyists said, however, that the government had failed to wield its most effective weapon the imposition of minimum price controls on alcohol.

The raft of new measures is "better than nothing", according to Carys Davis, spokeswoman for the Alcohol Concern charity. She said "it does seem tame", although she acknowledged that the ban on drinking contests and other promotions could help control bingeing.

Alcohol consumption has emerged as a political issue in recent years in Britain. Weekends see many town centres awash with young people staggering from one bar to the next, and government statistics suggest the country's alcohol-related death rate has doubled since 1991.

Last year Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson suggested price controls could lead to nearly 100,000 fewer hospital admissions and 45,000 fewer crimes a year.

The new rules expected to come into effect this year after being approved by Parliament — would ban speed-drinking competitions and all-you-can-drink offers. Bars would be required to offer drinks in smaller measures and tap water for free.
Big Bear Lake Oktoberfest takes place every Saturday and Sunday from September 19 through October 31, 2009. Events and entertainment varies by the day.

The capacity of Russians to drink Vodka is much more than the people of any other country just because they think they know the right way of drinking vodka. This is one reason why the Russians initially came with the concept of Vodka Drinking Contests – one reason was for entertainment and the other major reason was that through these contests they actually wanted to show their capacity and that they were better than others when it was about drinking Vodka. After this contest which started in Russia, this practice spread almost all across the world and more and more people started participating for the sake of fun and entertainment and even some of them participated in such contest to prove their caliber.