·The Observer

The American 'super-cop' brought in by the Home Office to cut Britain's
crime rate warned last night that the nation's binge drinking culture was
spiralling out of control and fuelling an epidemic of violence outside pubs
and clubs that threatened to overwhelm the police.
In his first major interview the former Boston police chief, Paul Evans,
described scenes he had witnessed in the early hours of the morning in city
centres across Britain as chaos. 'I'm not sure it can get much worse,' he
said, in response to police fears that new licensing laws allowing 24-hour
drinking would lead to increased violence.

As the government prepares to put tackling crime and antisocial behaviour at
the heart of this week's Queen's Speech, Evans is now considering new
proposals from senior police officers for tough new sanctions against
violent drinkers.

One measure would see binge drinkers caught fighting in city centres given
points on their driving licences. Another would give antisocial behaviour
orders to offenders banning them from high-crime nightspots.

Evans, appointed last September as the head of the Home Office's police
standards unit, will launch a 'Christmas blitz' next month to crack down on
alcohol-related offences using on-the-spot penalty fines, sting operations
on businesses serving under-age drinkers and closure notices on pubs and
clubs associated with violence.

'If you're in the business of fighting crime, then you have to be in the
business of dealing with the alcohol issue,' Evans said. 'I have spent an
awful lot of Fridays and Saturday nights out there. At one or two o'clock in
the morning these places are chaos.

Staggering opening hours of pubs might make a difference. 'I'm not sure it
can get much worse,' he said.

Government research shows that 44 per cent of violent crime is
alcohol-related and that 70 per cent of hospital admissions at weekend are
associated with drinking.

In preparation for the campaign, the Home Office has raised spot fines from
£40 to £80 for selling alcohol to under-18s, underage drinking itself,
disorderly behaviour while drunk in a public place and public drunkenness.

The courts were given the power to issue driving bans for non-traffic
offences earlier this year. But Evans has been informed that senior police
want beat officers to issue fines much like speeding-tickets, which would
attract points on their driving licence.

Police officers have complained that on-the-spot fines in themselves do not
deter affluent drinkers determined to get into a fight. Other measures under
consideration by Evans include a 'three strikes and you're out' system in
which persistent offenders would receive an automatic anti-social behaviour
order after a third fixed penalty for an alcohol-related offence.

Evans also revealed that his unit is now targeting 24 towns and inner city
areas that account for a quarter of violent crime. The areas range from
northern former industrial towns to south coast tourist resorts.

The news comes in advance of Tuesday's Queen's Speech in which the Prime
Minister will unveil new measures to crack down on crime. These include
curbs on anti-social behaviour, organised crime, illegal immigration and
drugs - including plans to force more addicts into detox treatment. New
measures to crack down on alcohol-related crime are expected to include
sanctions against nightspots consistently associated with violence and
under-age drinking as well as drinkers themselves.

Muslims who have deserted Labour over the Iraq war will be wooed back with
pledges to prosecute people who incite religious hatred - the same safeguard
as is currently extended to race hatred - and outlaw discrimination on
grounds of faith.

David Blunkett will also unveil a Sentencing Bill to slash the number of
prisoners in Britain's jails, by diverting them into toughened-up community
sentences, or halfway schemes such as weekend jails. This will delight
prison reformers - including Cherie Blair, who has campaigned vigorously for
fewer women to be jailed - but it is one of few liberal measures in a
draconian programme designed to buy it space for more progressive arguments
during the election campaign.

'This is about buying the public's permission to move on to talking about
our progressive agenda,' said one Whitehall source. 'It's arrogant to say we
shouldn't address what the public say their concerns are, the links they see
between terrorism, illegal immigration, drugs and organised crime.'

With only a few months to go until a likely election, the Government is
unlikely to get all the bills on its list onto the statute books. However
Downing Street has made clear that four will be prioritised at all costs:
the introduction of identity cards; a crackdown on serious and organised
crime; sweeping powers to combat anti-social behaviour; and measures to
break the link between drugs and crime. Opposition MPs who oppose them will
be painted as 'soft on crime' in the election campaign.