There has been a curiously one-sided reaction to the positive news yesterday that the scourge of binge drinking facing the nation may be less of a crisis than the government and health campaigners had led us to believe.

A report by experts at Cardiff University suggests a sharp fall in the number of people being injured in serious violence across England and Wales.

Researchers found 32,780 fewer people sought treatment at hospital accident and emergency departments in 2013 than in 2012, continuing a trend that has seen a steady decrease every year since 2001, except for a blip in 2008.

Much of the coverage has focused on the issue of the price of booze, after researchers suggested this and falling levels of expendable income could be a factor.

Since 2008, says the study, affordability of alcohol has decreased, with the real price of alcohol in both the on-trade and off-trade coinciding with a decrease in alcohol consumption levels from 10.8 litres per capita (in 2008) to 10 litres per capita (in 2011).

Yet the report finds that, while between 1980 and 2012 the price of alcohol increased by 24% more than retail prices generally, in the same period, disposable income went up by 99%.

So a far bigger factor would appear to be not the price of alcohol but a change in mindset among young people towards it.

“Binge drinking has become less frequent, and the proportion of youths who don’t drink alcohol at all has risen sharply,” says Professor Jonathan Shepherd, director of the university’s violence and society research group, and lead author of the report.

The supporters of minimum unit pricing (MUP) argue the case for it to return to the agenda, yet surely this report shoots yet more holes in the government’s original case for that policy, especially alongside recent figures showing that alcohol consumption in the UK is at its lowest level in 23 years.

The sustained fall in alcohol-related violence, over more than a decade, is in stark contrast to the PM’s vision of ‘mayhem’.

In 2012 David Cameron launched the government’s plans for minimum pricing with the following words: “Binge drinking isn’t some fringe issue. It accounts for half of all alcohol consumed in this country. The crime and violence it causes drains resources in our hospitals, generates mayhem on our streets and spreads fear in our communities.

“My message is simple. We can’t go on like this. We have to tackle the scourge of violence caused by binge drinking. And we have to do it now.”

Well the evidence appears to suggest we haven’t “gone on like this”. This situation has been achieved without the blunt instrument of MUP.

And while there are certainly plenty of city centres where drunken scenes are still far too common, surely the obsession with MUP as the cure-all is looking increasingly unbalanced – especially as a tool to tackle binge drinking.

The fall in violence recorded in these figures also needs to take into account the partnerships between local authorities, police, drinks businesses and community groups that have been working on this problem.

But most of all, we must give credit to the new generation. It would appear they don’t need a nanny state to realize that a night in casualty with a broken nose is not all that appealing.

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