The cup of immoderation

I hardly let a day go by without a glass or two of wine, and therefore I believe strongly (because I want to) in the J shaped curve of mortality versus alcohol consumption. Teetotallers are harming their health. As for moderation, its definition is clear: it is the habitual consumption of one drink more than the number I am drinking at the time.

Still, when I behold the scenes observable in the centre of every British town and city on Friday and Saturday nights, I begin to long for a revival of the temperance movement and for a reincarnation of the Reverend John Davis, who in 1843 delivered a lecture at Pembroke in Wales, later published in Haverfordwest, which he …