Lucy Breakwell The Politics Show North West

The pub: Popular venue for watching World Cup

You can guarantee that many people across the North West will spend Sunday afternoon watching England play Ecuador, pint in hand, at one of the region's pubs.

For the past few weeks drinking establishments have been packed.

The more games England win the greater the temptation to skip out of work, have a drink, and soak up the football.

According to statistics 10% (2.9 m) of working Brits will leave work early to watch the football and 5% will go to the pub to watch the games and then return to work.

But could that drink cost you your job?

No drinking

In the past you only needed to worry if your job involved driving but these days more and more organisations are adopting strict no drinking rules for safety or discipline.

For example, Brighton and Hove Council banned all drinking for members of staff during working hours even at work functions.

Is there a good reason for this though?

Survey results from a YouGov poll show that one in six Britons have turned up for work under the influence of alcohol in the past six months and 2m have taken a day of sick due to a hangover. We

also investigate the scheme targeting young Asian men to try and stop then "showing off", with sometimes fatal consequences, in high powered cars.

The initiative in Blackburn is in response to statistics which show people from ethnic minorities are three times more likely to be injured in a car accident than the national average.

Jim Hancock presents Politics Show North West with Gill Dummigan

The Politics Show

We join students on the Kick Start Safe Driving Scheme to see how they get on.

Join Jim Hancock and Gill Dummigan live on the Politics Show on Sunday 02 July 2006 at 12:00 on BBC One.

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