Last night I was on duty as a Street Pastor in Brighton. It was a relatively quiet evening, in part according to those who attempt to understand such things because the previous evening had been very busy with 1000’s of very drunk people causing lots of problems to the Police and NHS. The view was that most of these revellers, still being hungover would take things easy on Friday, but probably repeat the process of Thursday night tonight (Saturday). The available resource in terms of Police Officers will however be much more significant as Saturday nights are usually very busy, so the chaos of Thursday is unlikely to be repeated. The challenge may be on Sunday night when things could be much busier than a usual Sunday evening (returning to work the next day is a great leveller).

Despite last night being relatively quiet, there were more than the usual numbers of people out on the Streets from 12-1. I suspect this was in part caused by the hung over groups going for a stroll in the town centre, but not walking purposefully to clubs and then getting stuck in as they might usually be expected to do. Most of these groups were all male, or certainly male dominated and although they were very boisterous, they were essentially well behaved. They were not doing any great harm, but no one would suggest that they were doing any good either, not even helping some of the club owners to make a profit. It was just aimless noisy behaviour. However it was boorish enough to ensure that others also out for a evening walk would cross to the other side of the Street to avoid these rather energetic visitors to the city.

Of course aimless, noisy boisterous behaviour is not confined to groups of men on the Streets of Brighton. Earlier this week John Bercow as speaker of the house of Commons was explaining how he has been approached by some of the members of Parliament to point out that they no longer wish to be associated with the boorish behaviour of some of their colleagues. Depressingly as much as the poor behaviour is being caused mostly by men, it is understood that it is mostly women who are calling for time out. Many of us hope that this will be enough to bring to an end the unedifying spectacle that is Prime Ministers Question time in its current format. One of the MPs who was interviewed explained that there was no point being at PMQs because she could not hear what was being said due to the noise all around her from those jeering and heckling.

Brighton and Hove has something of a reputation for its nightlife. As informative and indeed accurate as the Channel 5 show ‘Brighton Beach Patrol’ was, it inevitable gave the city a reputation that has brought even more people along to experience this for themselves. The challenge for the leaders of the City is to create an appeal to other people to also visit the City, so that the drug and alcohol fuelled behaviour becomes an even smaller part of the whole than is currently the case. Brighton and Hove has a fantastic Arts and Cultural offer which is best enjoyed sober or at least with only a few units of alcohol consumed. We also have some fantastic historical elements to the city, and despite the lack of sand, our beaches are wonderful places to visit, even after dark. However the over emphasis on one of our ‘attractions’ has displaced the importance of some of the others. This is the problem that also faces Parliament. The good work carried out by many of the 650 MPs 4.5 days a week is being badly damaged by the boorish and arrogant behaviour that a few are involved in for little more than a half hour on Wednesday lunchtime. Let us hope John Bercow can persuade the three party leaders and some of their more enthusiastic lieutenants to do some calming down of their own.