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]

someone told me once, who was in the medical profession, that alongside publicans, the highest incidence of alcoholism and alcohol abuse is amongst doctors, if so they should be heeding their own advice.

[anotheoldgit]

em10

We are back to Diane Abbott again.

[daftgrandad]

Most definitely not.The prices that pubs charge nowadays,is scandalous !

[ichkeria]

The "health experts" are calling for a minumum price per unit of alcohol, claiming that thousands of lives would be saved. It's the government which according to them has not gone far enough. That's the nub of the issue,
If you think they're right then the govt should take action. If they aren't right, then we should let things carry on as they are.

[Old_Geezer]

Rationing would not only be a costly bureaucratic activity it would fail to work since it is simple enough to brew your own. Or is the suggestion that would be criminalized ? No: if there is a genuine health concern by the government, and knowing the cost of the NHS there had better be, then persuasion would need to be much more subtle than that.

[Old_Geezer]

They can be right regards health and it still be correct not to take action. The health aspect is only one part of this issue.

[emmie]

AOG, yes, having worked for several publicans in the long distant past can testify that they do like a snifter or two, and going on a number of doctors I have come across some aren't far behind in the supping stakes.

[ichkeria]

I must have missed the bit that says: "Doctors are calling on people to stop drinking" :-)

[andy-hughes]

The problems bound up in the alcohol issue are complex, and there is no one simple solution.

Doubtless if it was invented today, alcohol would be a Class A drug, but we deal with a drug that is an inherent part of our culture, as well as being bound up in considerablegovernment tax revenues.

I see the issue as one of education.

The government amusingly thought that the creaton of a 'cafe' society would see UK drinkers copying their European counterpartsm sippinga glass of wine at a pavement cafe, not getting blitzed and looking for a fight.

This naivity simply ignored fundamental cultural differences - Europeans largely drinl to enjoy a drink, Britons largely drink to be drunk - there is no comparison.

Until we can formulate an education system that teaches young people that a good night out is not judged by the severity of the alcohol poisoning they have inflicted on themselves, and indeed that excess alcohol is not an essential for a good time, then this problem will persist.

Educate young people to drink responsibily, and the 'binge' culture will be erradicated. If the population can drink seinsibly, the loss of revenue from alcohol tax will be more than compensated by the drop in costs to the NHS for alcohol related injuries and illnesses.

It won't happen - but as with so many ills in society - education is the answer, and the government need to stop messing about and fund education properly.

[EDDIE51]

Anyone on here know which industry is Britain's most successful export cash earner ?
Is it Industrial machinery, is it clothing, is it cars ?
It is none of these it is the drinks and brewing industry !
The single product which earns more cash for the UK is whiskey . The other parts of the drinks industry earn a huge amount of export cash as well.
Not often mentioned when you see the news on TV as it is not considered PC to bragg about it, but without the brewing industry UK would be bankrupt !

[Khandro]

"Doubtless if it was invented today, alcohol would be a Class A drug,"
Well, maybe; but alcohol itself is not the problem, the problem is the way in which it is used by some people. May I quote Paracelcus -
"Poison is in everything, and no thing is without poison. The dosage makes it either a poison or a remedy."

[anotheoldgit]

andy-hughes

/// education is the answer, and the government need to stop messing about and fund education properly. ///

It is a nice idea but even that wouldn't work.

This is proven by the constant brain washing on various environmental and health issues that the present day school children have to experience.

And do the majority take any notice?

[pa___ul3]

I don't think so much it's the education that needs improving, it's the attitude towards it that needs changing. This may sound naughty but I'm sure it goes on anyway, but the way young people are obsessed with celebrity culture nowadays, it wouldn't be difficult to plant a few cool tee-total celebs out there and to reallt build on a mocking attitude towards the likes of Frankie Cocozza who made a show of himself on x factor going out and getting messed up every night. The media does have that power.
Naturally, beverage companies would want to try and do something about that, which may well be what's happening already.

[anotheoldgit]

pa___ul3

You have hit the nail right on the head, 'Role models' that is what's needed, but I am afraid they happen to be in rather short supply these days.

[andy-hughes]

AOG - I accept that it is just that - a nice ideam and i also accept that it won't work.

Paul / AOG - I have strong rservations about the notions of 'role models' - young people don't drink and take drugs because X-Factor numpties do it - they do it because of peer pressure - hence my education wish / hope/

[emmie]

Ichkeria, in every doctors surgery you should find a poster, warning of drinking too much, as well as hospitals, and sundry other places, where doctors work. It may be a government initiative but it's led by the BMA

[pa___ul3]

of course Andy, because the pressure is there from peers and if they don't comply they feel they can't be cool. Role models will go some way to helping that, it won't fix it, there is no fix, but every little can help. If a teenager admires a celebrity who goes against the grain and choses not to drink despite the pressures of society to do so, that would have an impact on their thinking.
The education will only take it so far, I know the principle dangers of drinking, I'm aware of the risks, but I still drink and, when I was younger, used to get in a pretty bad way. Now I'm a bit more mature, and a stronger character with it, I haven't been drunk in years despite regularly going out drinking with 6ft rugby players who like to get off their faces.

[ichkeria]

"Ichkeria, in every doctors surgery you should find a poster, warning of drinking too much, as well as hospitals, and sundry other places, where doctors work. It may be a government initiative but it's led by the BMA "

Excellent.

[Khandro]

'Role Models' --- What about AOG ?