Plan to set minimum price for alcohol

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cameron-to-set-minimum-price-for-alcohol-8348427.html

Will this have any effect on crime or alcoholism?

Mr Cameron seems too think so.

/// The Prime Minister said banning the sale of alcohol at less than 40p a unit could produce "50,000 fewer crimes each year and 900 fewer alcohol-related deaths per year by the end of the decade". ///

Where has he plucked these figures from?

[anotheoldgit]

weecalf

/// Why does it always come down to money .I would have thought that the way to solve it would be to not allow the people to drink so much in the bars ///

You may have a point there, why not issue a set number of tokens upon admittance, and then when all of them have been exchanged for alcoholic drinks, it's soft drinks only?

[ummmm]

And then they move onto the next bar.

[anotheoldgit]

sandyRoe

/// AOG, I hope you and Mrs AOG enjoy your Christmas break. The Gambia again this year, is it? ///

Hardly, I don't get on with the 'natives'. :0)

[ChuckFickens]

And what would you set the amount at?

I've known people that can sit and drink 10 pints and you wouldn't even know they've had a drink to talk to them, and I've seen plenty of people that are falling over or wanting to start fights after 4 pints.

[horseshoes]

Surely it's not about the actual drinking, rather than the behavious afterwards! I'm sure that most of us have been "glowing" from time to time, but have never felt the urge to kick the living daylights out of a fellow human.

[ummmm]

You also don't know how much they've downed before they leave the house.

[ChuckFickens]

I've felt the urge to do that to certain people without having to have a drink first :)

[anotheoldgit]

ummmm

You may have a point there.

But when we went to dances and we wanted a pass-out to pop to the pub, they would stamp the back of one's hand, so that one could return to the dance.

Perhaps a similar principle could be used, whereas when one had received the first tokens, then one's hand would be stamped, so that one could not get more tokens at the next bar?

Just a thought.

[magsmay]

@weecalf The problem is that a lot of trouble is caused because people get tanked up at home on cheap booze BEFORE going down the pub. Raising the price of alcohol will do nothing except impede on the enjoyment of people who drink responsibly. It will not stop crime because people who commit crime drunk will continue to do so -they will have to rob or mug more people to afford the extra cost of their booze. Children whose parents are alcohol dependent will suffer as mum and dad struggle to buy their Carlsberg specials and maybe people will try and distill thier own or go back to drinking meths?

[nannybooby]

OMG ,had a real bad five minutes there ....cost of Gin rising ...nearly had to go and have a snifter, then remembered Bombay Saphire is £17 a ltr at sainsburys this week..felt better !

Seriously though , I dont think it would make much difference , think drug taking is more of an issue to tackle.

[ummmm]

They'd wash it off, AOG, or they'd drink more at home before they went out.

[ummmm]

nanny, no, it's not.

[horseshoes]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-20467985

Nannybooby, and then worse still is the effect of drink AND drugs together. Young lives snuffed out by idiots like these. Does the govt honestly think a few pence on alcohol is going to stop it. BTW this was local to me.

[anotheoldgit]

Just another thought on this, if Cameron is hoping to control the amount we drink by increasing the price at the supermarkets, those who frequent clubs and pubs already pay extortionate prices for their drinks so how can this work, one will still see them throwing up, and urinating on our streets, no matter what the cost.

Better policing of our under-age drinkers is the answer, and let those adults who drink at home still enjoy the cut-price drinks from the supermarket.

[horseshoes]

"Better policing of our under-age drinkers is the answer, and let those adults who drink at home still enjoy the cut-price drinks from the supermarket".

Now, that I agree with!

[nannybooby]

sorry ummmmm , for the ist time I find myself at odds with you I think drug taking is a far more serious problem among the young than drinking,most kids will go through a short faze of drinking then reality kicks in and they stop. Dont think thats the same for drug taking. This isnt anew problem it was ariund when I was young many many many years ago ,Iknow of several "friends" who died young as a result of drugs and only one from drink.