A pandemic of drunkenness or statistics designed to make a story?

Amongst the current clump of articles about fear on the streets, anarchy in the UK and the sorry state of our policing there have been some shocking statistics about young people and alcohol.

86% of teenagers have consumed alcohol under age, David Wooding reports in The Sun. 'More than half drink at least once a day - while one in ten hits the booze every day... More than 12 per cent also said they admired hellraising singer Amy Winehouse - who is currently in rehab' [Sun's italics].

The paper goes on to quote a head shaking John Sewell, managing director of OnePoll, the company who conducted the alcohol survey. "These results are extremely worrying" says Sewell, "Teenagers think it is a normal thing because they constantly see pictures of their idols going in and out of rehab".

Indeed the statistics are worrying, although lose some of their impact if you read the blurb on OnePoll's website.

"Many of our clients" the company says candidly, "use OnePoll to trigger high impact media coverage". "Our team of national news journalists and PR experts know what the media will use". And, in a remarkably frank admission it admits that "we draw up poll questions in a way that will maximise story hooks".

Suddenly the evidence for a pandemic of drunkenness amongst young people seems slightly less convincing.