Alcohol price rise?

[1ARMEDBANDIT]

Do you think that the plan to raise the cost of alcohol to deter binge drinking is fair?
My opinion is why penalise the ones who drink moderately? Then if this works will the government raise the petrol costs to deter joyriders? Also will they raise the interest rates again to stop people getting into debt?

[LoftyLottie2]

Will it really affect the ones who drink moderately a great deal? You can't compare alcoholic drinks with petrol. Petrol is a necessity for people to get to work, etc. -alchoholic drinks are not. We can do without them - they are a luxury if we can afford them.

I have my doubts about whether raising the price of alcohol will stop binge drinking though!

I am not anti alcohol!!

[jake-the-peg]

Is this a current news story?

The only thing I see on the web is a report that booze adverts encourage young drinkers

[GYMRAT]

great point 1armed bandit!

[andy-hughes]

What we need is a cultural sea-change in our attitudes to alcohol.

Europeans, and the rest of the world, drink because they enjoy the taste and mild bizz of wine or beer.

The British drink to be drunk.

We have evolved a culture where the definition of a 'good night out' is exactly how much alcohol poisoning (dressed up with amusing words like 'trolleyed', 'slaughtered', 'blitzed' and so on) but poisoning is what it is - you can inflict on yourself in a short evening.

The drinks industrry make laughable adverts about enjoyment of the taste of their products, but the way the British drink, it could be tasteless, because they drink for the effect, not the flavour.

Until we address the attitudes to alcohol, and our idea of what enjoyment actually is - we will always have a binge culture, no matter how much they raise prices.

Cost will not stop people binge drinking - education will.

[Haggisdj]

"The British drink to be drunk. "

Perhaps that is because we have a one-eyed idiot for a Prime Minister>

[andy-hughes]

I fail to see the connection - or the need to recycle Clarkson's offensive remark.

[DrFilth]

Do you think that the plan to raise the cost of alcohol to deter binge drinking is fair?


will that mean they will charge 2p a pint


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-113145 3/Pub-chain-attacked-1p-pint-promotion-help-cu stomers-credit-crunch.html


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[123everton]

I'm old fashioned and tend to think that it's the job of government to make things cheaper so that they're avalable to all.
One of the solutions to the problem would be to reduce duty on beer consumed on draught.
The cheap supermarket booze at the moment is there to serve only one purpose, to get rid of small off licences. Once the small traders have gone and you have to buy from a supermarket the price will rise for "public health" reasons, and the seals will clap along happily.
In other countries in the evening there are other things to do in town apart from drink in the evening, all shops should stay open untill 2230 then people would be happy to take their children into town of an evening and the whole atmosphere would change.
Not immediately, it's true, but within a short time.

[LoftyLottie2]

As much as I love the continental way of life 123 Everton, I dont think we have a climate condusive to browsing shops at night time with our children ;o) brrrrrr

[VHG]

>The British drink to be drunk.

Totally agree.

I was walkikng round my local market the other day.

On one stall there was a couple with their teenage daughter.

I heard the young girl say "I am going out tonight and going to get totally smashed"

Nothing about enjoying the evening, or enjoying a few drinks.

Her one aim was to get blind drunk. She probably finished up lying in a doorway of a shop in a pile of her own sick.

What an awful country this has become.