BINGEING on booze could be a way of filling empty lives in the same way as watching dumbed-down TV shows.
That's the view of the Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev Peter Forster, who also says the problem won't be solved by the Government passing more 'intrusive' laws.
Writing in the March issue of Chester Diocesan News, he describes binge-drinking as 'but one aspect of a wider problem of attempted escapism'.
And he asks: 'Why does modern society create such a despair and emptiness that people try to fill it in these ways?
'Is it just another symptom of a society which is turning its back upon its Christian heritage?
'We should not be too surprised if those who neither believe nor cultivate the mind of Christ within them find life itself becoming a bit mindless.
'What, however, about the rest of us who are not addicted to drugs or alcohol? Are there other refuges which we seek?
'In our dumbed-down society, fed by ever-dumber television 'entertainment' and forms of consumerled escapism, we should be aware of the beam in our own eye before condemning the speck in others.' Mr Forster says he does not believe that extending the national limits of pub opening hours will solve the underlying problem of binge-drinking.
He explains: 'As in so many areas today, it is to local democracy and local accountability we should look, rather than to big government, which tries to solve social problems by passing more and more intrusive laws.'
