Beginning this week, bars in London will be able to stay open 24 hours if they so choose. Naturally the temperance crowd has their panties in a bind.

Mr. Blair and his ministers hope the relaxation of the drinking laws will lead to a European-style cafe culture in which patrons linger for hours over a bottle of wine as in Paris or Rome, or a couple of steins of beer as they do in Berlin.

But police, judges, doctors and other critics fear they will, instead, get a quantum leap in the binge drinking that -- along with loutish behavior, street fighting and related crimes -- already plagues the land.

I've always thought that people will drink and drive regardless of bar hours. (Does Las Vegas have more DUI convictions, and if so is it related to 24 hour operations?)

What's more, by not forcing people out the door all at the same time you'd think it'd actually make the roads safer on Friday and Saturday nights. Regardless of whether or not personal drink-driving choices are impacted by bar hours, the pleasure police will always push for more restrictions. Some colleges are actually banning alcohol from football games and tailgating.

Tradition is getting repeated tweaks almost everywhere. From such football and basketball powerhouses as Southern California and Kentucky to other Ivy League schools and lower-profile, lower-division institutions, college athletics is wrestling with its longstanding relationship with alcohol.

A USA Today survey of the 119 schools in the NCAA's major football-playing Division I-A found that nearly half (54) allow the sale of alcohol - through public concessions, in private suites or both - at one or more playing venues. Eighty-five of those schools have designated tailgating areas, and barely one in 10 tries to keep those zones alcohol-free.

Nor should they be trying to keep tailgating areas "alcohol-free". Someone needs to tell these people that not everyone drinks to get drunk, and those that do are not necessarily driving.