A Mancunian New Year

January 1, 2016 • 2:00 pm

by Matthew Cobb

New Year’s Eve in UK cities can be a pretty horrendous experience. The Manchester Evening News has just published a delightful selection of photos by Joel Goodman, showing what happened last night. They are generally pretty grim, but this photo, taken on Withy Grove, stands out. As various people on Tw*tter have commented, it looks like a Renaissance painting. Click twice to get the full glory:

Photo (c) Joel Goodman.

Long-standing Manchester DJ Dave Haslam tw**ted:

34 thoughts on “A Mancunian New Year”

  2. Those remind me of a line from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — “That was the worst good time I’ve ever had!”

  3. It’d be tempting to say it’s just youngsters having fun but, ye gods, one of those guys on the ground reminds me of my (late) grandad.

  6. Ugh…not a pretty sight!

    It’s a real shame that the UK never managed to establish the drinking culture more commonly found on continental Europe – that of having a few drinks with friends, and with some food, good conversation or music etc.

    Instead, far too many people in the UK set out with the explicit aim of getting dangerously drunk – to the extent that they will ‘preload’ (drinking cheap spirits before going out to get very drunk without spending too much money).

    1. The picture and responses on line are very funny but to be fair I think the proportion of the UK population that behaves like this is quite small and usually limited to the younger end of the spectrum. However there are exceptions to that rule, as evidenced by the older guy on the floor!
      As for the difference in drinking culture between the UK and mainland Europe I have long had a suspicion that there may be more to it than just culture. I have a theory that physical geography has something to do with it – but I’ll be the first to admit that this is just based on things I have read rather than hard data. Northern European countries have more problems with binge drinking than those in central and southern Europe. Scandinavian countries have the worst of all as far as I know. Further east there seem to be more issues in northern Russia than in the south and in the US alcohol consumption is generally higher in northern states.
      I know there are religious and cultural issues that need to be considered but it does appear to me to that alcohol abuse is higher on balance in northern latitudes. Could it be something to do with the long hours of darkness in winter, and cold weather in general? In the UK we probably only get 10 weeks of the year where we can sit outside on an evening enjoying a leisurely drink and chat with friends. In the Med it would be at least double that and they virtually never have to put up with the freezing wind, sleet and snow that we get lashed with further north.
      Whatever the reasons the photo is hilarious. I just feel a little bit sorry for the guy on the floor!

      1. I have not seen the stats to confirm it but furthest north in the US is highest alcoholics. Alaska followed by North Dakota. And for the reasons you stated – it is dark and cold so they drink all the time as if it were anti-freeze. It is not.

      2. I have developed the same conjecture as you for the same reasons and with similar reservations…

  9. Sure glad I wasn’t there. Seems english culture hasn’t changed much since I last lived there. What is, or ever was, with this idea of roaming around without underwear????

    1. Or clothes for that matter? It has been pretty mild here recently but even so the temperature was hovering around freezing point in Manchester at the time. Most of them are dressed like it’s the middle of summer…… God I’m starting to sound like my dad!

  10. Way back in my drinking days I would not go out on new years. That is when all the amateurs are out.

  11. I wonder what NY would look like in comparison. The pictures were obviously entertaining but it is a skewed view, portraying only the unpleasant side of the celebrations.

  12. I looked at all the linked pictures, but that one is the best. The guy lying on the street reaching for his pint makes it for me. I am afraid I’ve been in the UK enough to have witnessed totally drunken behavior on a weekend. My British friends shake there heads, and say it’s a problem of the youth culture.

  13. There is what looks like a honeybee graffito on the bollard in the lower right(near the legs of the red-skirted woman). It looks nicely done! Is that merely a graffito or is it something else?

    Great photo. I zoomed in and looked closely at most of it.

  15. QUOTE FROM P. J. O’ROURKE:

    “Yes, alcohol kills brain cells, but it’s very selective – it only kills
    the brain cells that govern good sense, shame, embarrassment, and restraint.”

    1. Or, in PJ’s case, the brain cells that govern political reasoning (though, happily for us, his readers, not the cells that provide for a keen sense of funny).

  18. As a Britisher I can report that this is not surprising at all.

    I do give credit to the police who have to deal with it.

  20. So the guy having a little lie down in the road had managed to keep his pint unspilt. (Or had some kind person refilled it for him?) Either way I’m impressed.

    cr

  21. I don’t know about renaissance painting – it calls Hogarth to mind for me.

  22. In the photo of the drunk girl collapsing out of the taxi there is a warning printed on the cab that reads “please mind your head”. Advice that is being widely ignored!

  24. You’ll see the same Scene played out in Bolton, Wigan, St Helens, Liverpool every Friday Night.

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