So the ‘cafe culture’ didn’t come to pass; Labour’s much-heralded relaxation of the licensing laws didn’t turn Rotherham into Las Ramblas.

But on the other hand, neither did the feared literal 24-hour drinking culture arrive either. There are only 7,600 24-hour licences today, of which 4,200 are hotel bars.

The real problems that came about from the 2003 Licensing Act were the new places that opened up – bars known as ‘vertical drinking establishments’, and that it made it much harder for councils to turn down licensing applications in general so the number of licences has gone up from 115,262 in 2003 to 202,000 in 2012.

What does Labour do now on alcohol? Rather embarrassed by the 2003 Licensing Act, Labour seems a bit timid when it comes to existing alcohol policy. The influence of Methodists and of the temperance movement on the early formation of the party such as famous teetotaller Keir Hardie seem a very distant memory indeed.

Last year in Scotland, Labour opposed the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing, mainly it seemed to oppose the Scottish National party which thought of the idea first. In Westminster Labour have criticised the government U-turn on minimum pricing but have not gone as far as saying it will be in its manifesto.

For all politicians of any political party, alcohol can be an electoral minefield. It seems impossible for a candidate not to have the photo opportunity of a friendly pint in the pub, something that clearly hasn’t escaped Nigel Farage. However, you also can’t take it too far either and be seen to be drunk in public, or on the parliamentary estate.

But any serious political party that wants to win the next election needs to have a strategy for dealing with the harms caused by alcohol, because it is burning a £21bn hole in the nation’s finances. And the health trends are all going in the wrong direction, with 1.2 million alcohol-related hospital admissions and a 117 per cent increase in admissions for alcohol-related liver disease in under-30s in the past 10 years. And, of course, in terms of deaths, it is in the poorer Labour heartlands, such as Liverpool and Sunderland, where we see the highest numbers of people dying from alcohol misuse.

So what should Labour do about the tricky problem of alcohol in its manifesto?

First, Labour has a strong record on alcohol if you look further back. Barbara Castle introduced drink-driving legislation back in 1967 and now it’s socially unacceptable to drink and drive. So building on this, Labour should commit to lowering the drink-drive limit in keeping with most other European countries (to 50ml/100 compared to 80ml/100).

Second, Labour should look to its local authorities who have realised that towns and cities need more than a high street of tightly packed together vertical drinking establishments to survive, such as Newcastle recently introducing a late-night levy. A Labour manifesto should give councils tougher powers to control the number of licensed premises in their area.

And, third, Labour should learn from its great public health success in introducing the smoking ban. Of course, one of the great ironies of the fact that the cafe culture didn’t happen is because generally it’s too cold to sit outside to drink, but this has meant that Labour’s smoking ban has been a great public health success. That means making a manifesto commitment to either minimum pricing or a ban on alcohol advertising. So the message to the Labour party is this: don’t bottle action on alcohol policy or we’ll all be paying a high price.

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Emily Robinson is director of campaigns at Alcohol Concern, writing in a personal capacity. She tweets @EmilyRobinson1

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Photo: 00ucci