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.

[emmie]

Tony, not so much, i have added a postscript for some tlc.

[Old_Geezer]

Loss leader booze should be banned. I'm more agnostic on "cheap" though. I guess it depends on where the line is drawn. On the one hand I'd rather there was no government interference, on the other if it means better quality products and less binging, they have a point. On the whole though I guess I still prefer education to compulsion from those who ought to keep their nose out.

[emmie]

Tonyw, you don't want that old hypocrite running the Labour party, not whilst you can have a young one do it currently.

[ichkeria]

Khandro I think it's "minimum pricing" that's being talked about, not a sudden tax hike. Plainly the tax being as it is only emphasises how much of a loss vendors are sometimes prepared to take.
Alcohol in Ukraine is ludicrously cheap and you seldom seem to see anyone sober there :-)
And France has a huge alcoholism problem. Though I'm not sure that's necessarily because fo the prices.

[sandyRoe]

Could the scientists not come up with something to put in booze that would make people sick if they drank too much?

[Bambiagain]

Like Khandro, I'm in Germany, and apart from certain Bank Holidays when groups of men wander round, generably very amiably drunk, there isn't a lot of public drunkenness here. The Germans do like to party, and it is commonplace for people to buy their beer by the crate. Wine (my tipple) is very reasonably priced and I was horrified when I last visited England and went out to buy some wine as a present for my hosts - having flown I couldn't carry much - and saw the price.

It isn't the price that leads people to drink too much; it's a cultural thing. Raising prices will not stop those determined to overdo it.

[ichkeria]

"Could the scientists not come up with something to put in booze that would make people sick if they drank too much? "

Funny you should say that sandyRoe, but when I was a student I discovered that that was exactly what they were doing! :-)

[Old_Geezer]

It's called anti freeze.

[tonywiltshire]

EM, Yes I do, as it would make them unelectable.
Market forces will, in the end, dictate the price if left alone cheap offers indicate lower profit margins, which are unsustainable.

[emmie]

then the answer for ailing pubs is to get their off licence back, and stop the big boys like tesco keeping their nose in the trough.
Diane Abbot, everyone's favourite hypocrite, i watched her on newsnight once, and she got torn apart for her stance on education.

[sandyRoe]

If she could have sent her children to the same 'comprehensive' as Blair's children went to, would you all still consider her to be a hypocrite?

[ichkeria]

"It isn't the price that leads people to drink too much; it's a cultural thing.
Raising prices will not stop those determined to overdo it. "

I don't think it's fair to generalise like that. Plainly SOME people won't be put off by higher prices, but it strikes me as self-evident that a person faced with the choice of buying 12 cans of cider for the price of a bottle of wine (I'm not sure if that's a realistic scenario but for the sake of argument) is likely to go for the former, and what's more, attempt to drink it all, on the principle that one is getting one's money's worth. As I say, I've seen it happen.

[ichkeria]

"then the answer for ailing pubs is to get their off licence back, and stop the big boys like tesco keeping their nose in the trough. "

Yep, I agree!

[DTCwordfan]

(i) No one has taken up fender's earlier point - what about lifting the drinking age to 21 and stiffening up the penalties for breaking that law. I have no strong opinion on that - though I think it is hard on sensible youngsters and those in the military etc

(ii) There could even conceptually be some sort of ID system for 18 to 25s and if you are done for excessive booze or antisocial drink related behaviour, you lose the rights

(iii) Limit the <25 year olds to Martinis or less....???

and for the record, Immingham refinery probably produces safer alcohols than the crap coming out of those Grimsby illegal stills. As an aside, when Yeltsin tried to tackle Moscow's serious drinking problems with cheap vodka, the number of car accidents went shooting up. The alchies turned to cutting brake lines to get at the fluid there..............OG's comment is spot on.

[cazzz1975]

I agree with that as well em10, Though I think bambiagain raises a good point, maybe we have to address the cultural need for people to binge drink to the point of liver damage?

[Bambiagain]

Ichkeria - I quite agree that faced with an offer of a multipack of cider (sadly hard to find here, by the way) at a silly price, of course people who just want to drink as much as they can will take that instead of the more expensive option. I know that if my favourite bottle is on offer I'll buy more than I would otherwise - although personally I wouldn't throw it all down my neck in one session. But I still maintain that if they are determined, those who intend to get drunk will do it even if the price is raised. They find the money somehow, just as smokers do however much the tax is increased.

[tamborine]

Unaffordable booze & fags will depress most and we'll need anti-depressants/uppers/downers.

Docs will prescribe zombie survival & when insanity sets in, its the end for all.

[emmie]

sandy, it's off thread, but its hardly a bog standard comp.
http://news.bbc.co.uk...education/1055510.stm

[emmie]

tamborine, insanity is already here, most law abiding people get penalised along with the idiots, over drinking, and much else besides, and it's not cheap, not round our way, it's one of the reasons only hotels and the upper end of the market has survived.