Should cheap booze be banned?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph....ing-doctors-warn.html

First it was cigarettes and tobacco, now it is alcohol, next is almost definitely going top be the very food that we eat.

Will the measure to stop supermarkets selling cheap booze do anything to cut the rate of drinking by our youngsters? Judging by the price they pay for their drinks in the clubs these days, I don't think so somehow.

/// Diane Abbott, shadow public health minister, also added to the calls for tougher measures, claiming "alcohol has been too cheap for too long". ///

Maybe it has on her salary, and taking into account the subsidy on drink, enjoyed in the Houses of Parliament bar.

But not to the pensioner or the hard working couples who enjoy a drink after a hard days work.

[ummmm]

No, it shouldn't be banned. Most people drink sensibly and it will be them who'll be punished because of the idiots.

The type of person paying for drinks in clubs are not the people they are aiming this at. It's the kids getting steamed up on the street...kids still in school who can buy alcohol with their dinner money.

[grffindoor2011]

No. If people want to drink let them. The 'alcohol has been cheap for too long' argument tells me that it has nothing to do with seeing alcohol as an easy tax maker, but that the government are trying to control the population by making it unaffordable.

Power to the people. Down with governments.

[EvianBaby]

I don't think making booze more expensive will have any difference at all.

It's the same as cigarettes really, despite how expensive they are if people want them they will find a way to pay for it.

[Hettster]

No No No

[missprim]

I know you will all boo me (get her off) but if I ruled the world I would ban alcohol, tobacco and drugs. All these substances cause problems and we would all be better off without them.
Yes I know I'm a spoilsport and you can all have a go at me .............now!

[pa___ul3]

I wouldn't be against an increase of tax on alcohol sold in shops etc, with pubs given a break, I think the social community in pubs is healthier than drinking on your own.
It's a luxury commodity and in the current climate if we could earn more money from it then I think it would benefit the country.

[B00]

"I know you will all boo me"

Hey!!

:-(

[ummmm]

And watch personal tax go through the roof...

[missprim]

Boo will you boo me :-)

[anotheoldgit]

missprim

Not in the least, everyone should be allowed to voice their own opinions.

But having said that have you really thought your argument out?

Ban on alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Well drugs are already banned and look at the problems that creates, and if tobacco and alcohol was also banned, the problems would intensify.

Look what happened during the prohibition period in the USA.

[joggerjayne]

I would have two concerns:

(1) The measure would hit the less well off , who would probably still drink the same amount, but pay more.

(2) Drinkers might end up diverting money from more essential expenses, like food, and reduce the cost and possibly quality of the food they give to their families.

It is well established that artificially increasing the cost of our vices has a negligible impact on our consumption of those vices.

Indeed, the Treasury knows very well that it can continually increase the cost of alcohol and tobacco, and we don't change our habits one jot.

[ichkeria]

I think it will help.
Some time back I was in our local shop buying the usual stuff from our local Tubbs and Edward, when I overheard the (suspiciously underage-looking) kid in front of me, who was in the process of buying a huge consignment of "special offer" cider, on the phone to his mate telling him/her how great a bargain he'd got and recommending that person come over and buy as well.
It's easy to see the connection between cheap alcohol and over-indulgence (and not just among youngsters) when you see this sort of thing and hard also to imagine that it's not an uncommon occurrence.

[mungbeanz]

NO WAY! Sancerre already costs ten quid a bottle.

[anotheoldgit]

pa___ul3

/// I think the social community in pubs is healthier than drinking on your own. ///

What joining your smoking friends outside in their cold outdoor smoking shelters, liable to 'catch your death'.

The only other choice is to remain in the pub, drinking on your own.

[ummmm]

And any youngster having to be taken home by the police for being drunk in public...the parents should be charged.

[missprim]

AOG Yes I do realise the consequences of banning all these and I know it's just not possible to do. I just wish these things had never been invented as imo they cause too many problems.x

[pa___ul3]

ha, most of my friends don't smoke so I'd be alright! We saw the benefits of pub drinking over home drinking in your post about the old chap who fell in the bath.
I think it's largely a different mentality too, although I've never really been one to drink at home so I'm probably not the best judge.

[Ankou]

you'd just end up with cheap dodgey vodka from lincolnshire turning everyone blind.

[mungbeanz]

But missprim. these drugs were'nt invented. They were discovered of thousands of years. Human's will always look for ways to alter their mind and the problems are caused by making the wrong drugs illegal and legal. If tobacco smoking had been made illegal a hundred years ago I doubt many people would even care for it nowadays.