Y'know, McGrath, I agree entirely with you - indeed I might go further, but although you can take a horse to water, I don't think you can get the extreme puritans here to take a drink - or indeed, let other people take a drink.

Supervised parties for mid-teens (not too much supervision) are an excellent forum for young people to learn about life, experiment a little, not get hurt.

I remember one occasion when my daughter (probably about 15 at the time) was invited to a party at a friend's. We had ourselves had a party the week before and I had bought a 1.5 litre bottle of a a good strong cider (6.4%) for a friend who was supposed to be coming and who was a cider drinker. He no-showed. It was still in the larder.

Cunningly Rachel asked her mother, not me, whether she could take it to the party. Her mother rashly said "it's only cider, OK". We had a rule not to contradict each other, but I did later take Rachel aside and explain that it wasn't Strongbow, it was proper cider, and that while I knew she was sensible, she ought to take care that her friends took care too. Her friend who was having the party was there too and her eyes lit up.

The friend (girl of same age) liberated the bottle at the party and drank it all, and fell over behind a sofa, and felt rather poorly the following day.

You know what they BOTH said to me the following day? "Don't you just hate it when grown-ups are right!" Lesson learned, no harm done, adult infallibility preserved. Job done. We've only ever once had to rescue Rachel from an alcohol-involved situation in her entire life. She's 23 now and doing fairly well.

Of course at that party there were no kids with car licences, and only about two with motor-bike licences, the keys to which were taken on arrival.

It seems to me the sentenced mother took reasonable precautions, and produced an outcome that was good for everyone except the religious right. God save America.

Surely the Prohibition experiment still teaches something?