PALMA BRACED FOR RECORD BINGE DRINK!

By Humphrey Carter VISITORS to Palma are in for a shock, boat owners in for a nervy night and the security, emergency and council cleaning services in for a busy weekend with thousands of young people expected to descend on the Paseo Maritimo to take part in tonight's “record” breaking binge drinking session. Here in Majorca and across Spain, e-mails and text messages have been sent out to tens of thousands of young people over the past month urging them to head for their nearest binge drinking location tonight to help set a new record for the amount of people getting drunk simultaneously. May sound like fun, but Palma city council was forced to admit two weeks ago that it had no powers to stop the event, despite pleas from the city's resident, business and restaurant sectors for the mass drinking session to be stopped. Instead, tax payers money is being used to cover the costs of an enormous policing operation which will also involve special emergency and ambulance teams. Palma City Council has joined forces with the Red Cross and scores of volunteers are going to be deployed along the sea front in a bid to try and maintain some kind of order and prevent any accidents. The Red Cross is also going to carry out a survey to find out why the binge drinking “botellon” sessions are becoming increasingly popular. Many people, in particular students, claim that they can not afford to pay the high pub and club prices, so they prefer the street parties. However, there are growing suspicions that there are also political motives behind this weekend's event. he “call to arms” of the initial e-mails sent across Spain was “we all want a decent home, a home in which we can live and establish a family without having to use 50 percent of our wages to pay for it.” Over the past three weekends, Palma authorities have been preparing for tonight's record drinking session. Extra close-circuit television cameras have been installed along the Paseo Maritimo with a special control centre set up where a team of police and Port Authority officers will spend the night monitoring events on the bank of monitors. The Guardia Civil will be manning special roadside breath test controls, and units of the riot squad will be on hand in the event of any disturbances. Ambulance crews and paramedics will be on stand-by. Extra waste bins are being wheeled out ahead of a massive cleaning operation which will start around 3.30am. ow many people will gather along the sea front tonight remains to be seen although the call has gone out to people living across Majorca and as many as 8'000 could join the street party.