We're still in denial about Britain’s secret drinkers

First Charles Kennedy and then Kenny Sansom, the last week has brought our problem with alcoholics into the spotlight

England defender Kenny Sansom pictured in the dressing room with the trophy after a 2-0 win over Brazil at the Maracana on June 10, 1984 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (David Cannon/Allsport/Getty Images)

As if tragic Charles Kennedy wasn’t enough, this weekend there is Kenny Sansom, former England and Arsenal first-team regular, all over the tabloids, despairing of life after decades of alcoholism.

For Sansom, read Paul Gascoigne, Paul Merson and, of course, George Best. Sport’s drinking culture only occasionally spills out into the open, usually – but not always – after the players’ careers are over. Look at cricket’s Andrew Flintoff.

Kennedy was hardly the first British politician to have drunk heavily: Asquith made PM, Churchill was famously another. Occasionally, incidents involving an Eric Joyce or Mark Reckless come to light and it’s unusual to see a photograph of Nigel Farage without a pint in his hand. Actor casualties include the Oliver Reed, Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris breed of hellraiser, and their contemporary equivalents. Casualties in the music industry are legion and legendary, most recently poor Amy Winehouse.

We could list writers from Dylan Thomas on down who have succumbed and don’t get me started on journalists. But, even in naming them, I’m aware there is a certain glamour. Perhaps, it’s the wild lifestyle, perhaps the “they died young” syndrome, like Marilyn or James Dean.

What astonishes me is the lack of sympathy from many of the rest of us. True, eulogies to Kennedy, did focus on his political gifts, before the arguing over his alcoholism resumed. The jibes had been particularly nasty before the recent election.

With Sansom and others, you don’t have to look too far to see the trolls, the haters; those whose own unhappiness is such that they need to lambast public figures who are down and, most importantly, sick.

It is not only the famous. Have you had alcoholism in your family? Have you ever stumbled across bottles hidden under the bed? Have you witnessed the sudden turn of mood, the melancholy, the despair that turns violent in drink? Have you tried to shield your children from this behaviour, or explain it to them? Have you lived with the guilt of blaming yourself for another’s sickness, not knowing what to do or where to go for help?

As a society, we are still in denial about our drink culture; still in a place where Kennedy’s ex-wife once dismissed allegations about his drinking as “untrue and unfair… just part of a normal, fun life”. We are still in a place where the 21-year-old, teetotal Sansom was persuaded to start drinking by his father.

I’m not sure that photographs of a comatose Sansom in the park weren’t staged, but it’s irrelevant. Recently, we saw “Tudors actor” Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the street, dishevelled, drinking neat vodka. Too many still see a humour or glamour in these scenes: “what a lad, eh?” No, these are not “lads”, and they’re most certainly not glamorous. They are sick and need our help. This can’t just begin after the event. We can all help by recalibrating our national attitude to alcohol and drinking, and part of that is to see alcoholism as a sickness.