No matter how much governments and do – gooders and others talk about it our appetite for booze seems to be worsening rather than showing any sign of decline.

So what is to blame for the obvious increase in younger people, in particular, hitting the bottle, the streets and one another?

We are supposed to be living in tough economic times and yet the young people continue to spend up big, and they don’t seem to care that booze prices are now quite high.

Are our sporting stars, or some of them, and particularly footballers, to blame for the publicity they continue to receive for days and nights on the town?

Is it because most entertainment centres around pubs and clubs and that’s where the booze is?

And what is of considerable concern is the age some of the younger ones take up the habit.

Are parents to blame for exposing their kids to the booze, even at backyard barbecues and the like?

Sure we can slash the amount of booze associated advertising in our media, but do you really think this will work?

We seem to be living in an aimless society with more and more younger people having earlier access to motor transport and being out and about is far preferable than staying at home and having a chat with the parents and offering to help with the chores.

And when they do stay at home you don’t get to talk to them because they sit glued to their computers.

What I have noticed is that fewer boys, in particular, continue to play sport after finishing their time in the juniors. Sure, many of them have to find work which often encroaches on their sporting time, but not evidently on boozing.

I feel sorry for our already over – worked police force who have the onerous task of cleaning up after many a drunken revelry goes astray and someone is bashed or set upon sexually, and worse still when they take to the roads and the inevitable fatal smash occurs.

Do we close the pubs and clubs at midnight, or earlier, and don’t open them until at least 10am?

Unfortunately such a move will only encourage drinking as there always seems to be a ready availability of booze for anyone who wants to imbibe.

A key factor is, I believe, the lack of discipline that exists out there right from secondary school days, and while parents might battle to keep their kids off the street it isn’t easy in today’s world where being out with boys or girls, or both, is seen as a much batter fun thing than sitting at home.

Perhaps, like the present economic crisis sweeping the world we will have to wait and hope it goes away!!!

The right vote is necessary

Long serving local politician Joanna Gash voted the wrong way, or so it seems, in the recent Federal Liberal Party leadership battle, and as an outcome she has lost a role as a key bit player in the Opposition ranks.

On the other hand Senator Connie Fierravanti - Wells went with the winner and has collected two jobs.

Now both women are more than capable, but I don’t know whether new Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull has thought enough about dumping Joanna, who has held her narrow margin seat for some years now, and who is well liked in her electorate and respected as a “doer”.

One can only hope Malcolm might see the error of his ways.

But on the other hand

We all know politics is a strange game, but when you look at the beleagured NSW Labor Party and see that loyal right winger, our own Noreen Hay, has been rewarded with a role as Convenor of the NSW Right Caucus you have to scratch your head.

She certainly manages to keep her head above water despite all the allegations that seem to come her way about developers and fund raising and the like.

It could be, of course, that Labor simply doesn’t want to dump her and lessen their chances of retaining Wollongong at the next elections!

And as for rewarding a badly failed ex – Premier Morris “Who” with a “pension” that will include access to a car and driver and an office with an assistant, how much more ridiculous can we get?

Anxious times

I believe the management at a local leagues club is sweating it out after a team of junior footballers held their wind up there and it was slotted into a room which forms part of one of the public bars.

But what they are really worried about are allegations from some parents that the club provided free drink vouchers for some and the boys were also within easy access of nearby gambling machines.

My latest mail is that the team’s coach might have been given the chop and he may well be the scapegoat in the whole incident.

Meanwhile other staff won’t comment about the incident, which they say, just didn’t happen.

The sky is falling in

It seems that Wollongong can’t help itself.

Fresh on the heels of the GTP Group announcing at least a two year delay on their plans to redevelop part of the mall, Crown Central and West Keira Street, we get the news that the highly controversial Gravity project may have reached the end of its tether.

This $300 million project at the bottom end of town has never been short of controversy and it’s apparent collapse won’t come as a surprise to many.

But Sandon Point, another point of public debate, looks like it might have been thrown something of a lifeline by the State Government.

Then to add to our woes we read that a Federal Government backed project The Australian Technical College is also in trouble.

And when you look at Wests Illawarra Leagues Club financial woes – an estimated $1.3 million down in the past financial year – you can’t help wondering what will be the next bad news story to arise in our city.

Storm not wanted?

One cannot help thinking, and I’m not alone in this, that the NRL doesn’t want Melbourne Storm to win another premiership.

The victimisation of the club by mainly Sydney media and the NRL itself over alleged inappropriate tackles has gone overboard, a point made pretty clear by former NRL stars Peter Sterling, Laurie Daly, Matthew Johns and Ben Ikin on Sunday’s Channel 9 Sports Show.

And as I’ve said many times in the past it’s time David Gallop was replaced as NRL “boss”.

Don't do anything

Received some advice from my financial planners last week which suggested the best action to take in times like this, as long as you have a well diversified quality portfolio of long term investments, is to do nothing at all.

They also suggested there was no way of knowing when the present world economic crisis will come to an end, but just as they suddenly begin from time to time they will similarly end.

I guess most of us already realise this and all the clap trap that is going on around the world, and in which our Prime Minister seems to feel right at home, isn’t going to find a quick fix.

Vale Paul Newman

There wouldn’t be many of us who hasn’t at one time or another watched the magic of the late Paul Newman on the big screen.

One of the very few artisans of his profession that kept his nose clean and remained a likeable bloke throughout his long association with the movie world.