The smokers are now well hammered, is it the turn of the drinkers?

[youngmafbog]

http://news.sky.com/story/1017470/cheap-booze-ministers-to-reveal-curb-plans

I really cant see how this works.

1) It clobbers the poor
2) The late teen, early twenty drinkers have plenty of excess income a few pence will make little difference. And most pubs/nightclubs are well above it anyway so it wont clear up the streets
3) People will start to make their own which will be stronger and unregulated. (so bang goes your health theory)
4) Smuggling back again ? - just as with fags.
5) And is a time of austerity a good time?
6) Why can't we use the laws we have at the moment. Sell to underage - loose licence, sell to drunks - loose licence. That is how to stop it.

I'm sure there are many more reasons. Cameron seems hell bent on p*ssing off the electorate, clearly he does not want to be re-elected, it is the nanny state more than labour these days, I'm sure he is a clone of Blair.

And most importantly, will the minumum price be applied in the commons bar?

[daffy654]

The whole thing is a poorly concealed revenue raiser.

[Old_Geezer]

I can see both sides of the argument, but I am sceptical it would work. Most of the drunken behavoior they show on TV was from drinks buoght in pubs & clubs where the price will not change. On the fringes maybe a few of the very poor would be unable to buy DIY brush cleaner any more :-) but genrally speaking someone who gets regularly drunk does so to try to escape other problems in their life for a while, and are likely to prioritise getting alcohol, pay more for it and eat less or whatever.

[sunny-dave]

The public health figures are a huge fudge (with some very dodgy assumptions) - basically there is no evidence for minimum pricing being effective in any way.

I agree with daffy and (gulp) youngmafbog :+)

[ummmm]

6) Isn't that already the case?

This will have no effect on the average drinker. You may notice a difference if you drink cheap artificial cider.

[Old_Geezer]

6 doesn't help if the alcohol is bought in advance and the young find a friend to buy it for them, or look well over the age limit. The rest is fair enough although one can argue it would be a cost worth paying by society if it actually worked.

[hc4361]

A lot of young people get tanked up on cheap supermarket booze before they got out to pubs and clubs.

[Old_Geezer]

You may be right, I'm no expert, but I think a youth isn't going to worry excessively about a little extra spent on the home consumed pint or two beforehand when they are willing to pay club prices later.

[FredPuli43]

Interesting to know on what basis the University of Sheffield deduces that numerous crimes would be prevented. Any clues?
Raising the price of a bottle to £40 and so on pro rata might, whilst simultaneously encouraging bootlegging and illicit stills, but the proposed increase is never going to deter those who enjoy getting drunk. Better to change the culture of drinking so that people don't regard drinking to excess as socially or personally desirable and to rigorously enforce existing laws.

[plowter]

Surely tax revenue is a fixed amount per litre so this won't make any money for the government. It'll simply allow supermarkets to make greater profits.

Scotland intends to go ahead with a 50p minimum price per unit in January. An example from the BBC website gives Tesco Value vodka (70cl) currently £8.72 (March 2012), increasing to £13.13. The supermarket will therefore be forced to accept an increase in profit of £4.41.

[abstibus]

I'm with Fred on this. I watched a TV programme a few years back where two groups of young people, one in England and one in France, went out for the evening. The Brits got tanked, the French had a civilised dinner with a few glasses of wine.

[jake-the-peg]

I find it hard to disagree with a lot of your logic

I notice government ministers citing city centre trouble to try and get the public on board - ignoring the fact that most of these have just kicked out of pubs and clubs where booze is - let's face it expensive and so will be unaffected.


The Minister gave it away on Radio 4 when he talked about 'respectable people'


This is about not being able to fix the real problem so tinkering at the edges so that you can say you're fixing the problem

It's all about buying time with disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

(But before I gett too high on my white horse I have to admit I don't have a good solution to the problem either - well not one that doesn't affect 'respectable people' too)

[FredPuli43]

Indeed, annemollie. I had a home in France for decades and never once saw what we here see every weekend; young people en masse drunk in the streets, having gone out with that intention. Though a few years back the press there got obsessed with le binge drink, which they solemnly declared a menace imported from Anglo Saxon countries, this supposed fashion never caught on. And, some years ago, a study of alcohol-related illness and deaths showed that Greece had the lowest figure in Europe, yet wine and spirits there were cheap. It wasn't the price or availability which affected that. It was that Greeks drank every day but their culture was to drink primarily at mealtimes and not otherwise.

And a curious observation. In years of racing in Ireland, I never saw anyone drunk on a racecourse. But go to Aintree for the Grand National meeting, and there were many people who were drunk when they arrived, let alone in the course of the 3 days racing.

[ummmm]

It's not just young people getting tanked up at the weekend.

[ichkeria]

I thought that the idea was that it would discourage bulk-buying, which it surely will do. I've seen young folk in our local shop stacking up on cheap alcohol simply because of the price. If it's a bit pricier then maybe they'll buy less which can;t be a bad thing. It won't address binge drinking in pubs but I doubt if it is intended to.

Also, I thought that price-increase was not actually a tax, and therefore not a closet revenue-earner.

[keyplus90]

There should be a complete ban on alcohol..................



OK, I am waiting for the guns turning towards me now.

[ummmm]

Why is that then? This is a Christian country, the wine was flowing in the Bible :-)

[aelmpvw]

it won't affect the price of expensive champagne will it

[anotheoldgit]

And apparently it won't stop at the drinkers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2239358/Raise-cost-parking-force-motorists-walk-Nanny-watchdogs-plan-Britain-fit.html

[Dodger666]

They should never have introduced 24 hour drinking. They should reintroduce limited licencing hours and limit supermarkets etc, to the same hours to sell alcohol.

[emmie]

it's an absurd idea, it doesn't clobber anyone but the man or woman who likes a beer or two after work. One of our locals has average 4 quid a pint, who on earth can afford more than two at any one sitting.