Rosemary Behan Sunday Telegraph, August 24
"We have become pariahs in a way that the French, Spanish or Italians could never be. The drunken aggression, the casual sex, the blatant disregard for local customs abroad, the general obscenity - all these have been dismissed as harmless fun. The fatal stabbing in Faliraki [on August 12] of a 17-year-old from Peterborough will, I hope, put a stop to that fallacy ...
"Now it appears that the Greek authorities have finally had enough. [The clampdown is] surely what would have happened in this country, and much sooner, if hordes of young Greeks had been marauding through London, Brighton or Blackpool, drinking, shouting and being sick ... To pass this off as fun is a cop-out. Until individuals take responsibility for their actions, nothing will change."
Jeanette Hyde Observer, August 24
"The Greek authorities should be doing some real soul-searching now. Rather than flinging in jail or fining every girl who flashes her breasts, they should be asking themselves how they can destroy the monster of Faliraki ...
"Here's my advice to the Greek authorities ... Reposition yourselves in the market (Saga guests wouldn't cause such bother, though maybe the alcohol sales would dwindle). It may not be as profitable but, as the saying goes, behind every fortune is a crime. In this case, the crime of greed."
Tony Parsons Daily Mirror, August 25
"The worst thing about the British is we don't know how to drink. The yobs and slappers mooning, puking and getting nicked in Faliraki are probably not that different at home ... There is a theory that increased Europeanisation will make the Brits less pathetic with their drink, that we will become almost Mediterranean in our attitudes, allowing children to have a little wine mixed with water with their meal, knowing when to stop and - above all - not seeing alcohol as the fast track to oblivion. Fat chance. It is far more likely the young Euros will end up copying our gluttonous look-ma-no-trousers attitude. Binge drinking is the new football hooliganism. Soon they will all be doing it."
Mick Hume Times, August 25
"The over-the-top (and out-with-the-bottom) goings-on in Faliraki may well reveal something rum about British youth today. But the over-the-top reactions back home betray a loss of perspective as bad as that suffered by any drink-addled tourist ...
"We are suffering under a regime known as Institutionalised Miserabilism [which] encourages a climate of caution and risk-aversion that is part of the problem rather than the solution ... When we seem so determined to keep young people wrapped in cotton wool like irresponsible babies, it should come as no surprise that, suddenly released into freedom for a fortnight, they behave like caricatures of traditional raucous teenagers with no idea of where any line might be drawn."
Keith Waterhouse Daily Mail, August 25
"Just off the coast of French Guiana is a rocky settlement once known to the world as Devil's Island. Notorious for its harsh conditions, it was a penal colony for prisoners suffering from contagious diseases ... It should become a tourist resort full time, catering exclusively for the yobbo tendency. Visitors would sleep in the cells and be hosed down in the morning before being turned loose to do as they pleased ... No arrests, because there would be no one to make them ... Clutching their duty-frees and nursing monumental, never-again hangovers, our blokes and blokettes stagger into Heathrow. Next year, who's for the Lake District?"
