Dear Anthea, Indeed, your conclusion that I suggested personal responsibility is, of course, correct. If you wish to compartmentalise for yet more partisan politics, then one could call it 'compassionate conservatism' along with myriad other badges. Your term is especially apt if looking at society 'down the wrong end of a telescope.' Had you read what was 'on the lines,' I did not say that people with mental illness are charged for such services, or that we leave anyone to die. Those with a 'lack of education? Well, the excuse for not taking the initiative outside of what the schools provide, i.e. picking up a book is another subject. However, surely if the intoxicated individual was able to repeatedly procure the funds, source the alcohol, select the alcohol, request the alcohol, use the alcohol and subsequently be 100% successful at making others lives a constant misery, they must possess some ability in being intelligent enough to know where it will lead? Thus I draw no distinction between the violent drunk with no schooling and the violent drunk with a degree. I would suggest that it is due to those in 'leadership' in the UK that seem to like looking at things 'upside down' and sharing a bed only with those with exactly the same unrealistic opinions, that are the specific cause of the uncalibrated, irresponsible aspects of society. If there are few consequences and all is forgiven in the name of "trying to address their needs and giving these individuals the same entitlements as everyone else", we will forever be picking up the pieces. The upside down approach of 'addressing their needs' will result in the recipients dying prematurely without having ever contributed back to society, or their own existence. Despite that which you seem to think, human beings need solid leadership. They respond far better to this, than being given carte blanche. As to your final question, accountability is relatively simple to facilitate. After all, far less fruitful measures are facilitated daily within the system, and the tax payer pays for these, of course. The system could be facilitated at street level in the same way that someone caught intoxicated with a vehicle. At facility level, if they are brought in, suspected of and tested for intoxication, they be forwarded a bill for services rendered. When one looks at the 32 Million per annum one London borough makes from parking tickets alone, it's not too difficult to fathom funding for such a system. With the way things are going, and if matters continue in the same direction they are today, there will be no NHS in the future. We will lose that which we used to be proud of, and still should be. But, it already costs more than it should, and taxpayers will eventually say no, if individual costs outweigh those in eg the US, (and using your apparent benchmark they soon will). Then there will be privatisation. Do you think your sense of entitlement for the irresponsible will be enough to pay for their treatment in such circumstances? I happen to know it will not. So better to start showing people that if they abuse the social standards of the UK, they will pay and pay dearly. Lest we all lose due to their ignorance and our 'leadership.'