Minimum price for alcohol.

[Billy09]

If this becomes law it will have no impact on present abusers. However it will impact on future abusers. The NICE report did look at setting a higher VAT on alcohol, but that would affect all brands rather than directing restraints at the cheap end of the market.

I have a very biased view on this, especially after deciding to go sober again, but I believe that harm will be reduced if someone can't drink themselves insensate every night for around £6 (maybe £9).

Edited June 5, 2010 by Billy09

[Billy09]

There was a major change to the alchohol/pub regulation post Leah Betts which I read a fantastic article on recently. The alchohol industry was given carte blanche by the government to make alcohol "cool" again to youngsters which resulted in these drinking factories springing up in town centres, alcho pops and the mid-Nineties lad /ladette culture.

[llcoolphil]

Yeah. I drink to get drunk. A habit I need to kick.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

It does smack a bit of punishing less financially well off drinkers though. Seems to be "its fine to drink too much if you can afford it".

We're already talking about people buying from supermarkets, presumably because they're priced out of the pubs (or maybe, as has been suggested, because they fancy a smoke).

In my experience alcoholics don't tend to be that influenced by cost. The most popular addicts poison (at home) round here seems to be Strongbow, not Diamond White. In my university days white cider was the fuel of students and homeless, not especially that of the hardcore drinker, who were regular frequenters of pubs, as they still are.

I still don't see why this is any business of NICE, or the BMA for that matter (they've also been sniffing around this issue recently). Give lifestyle advice by all means (and an update of the 14/21 weekly units advice might be warranted, maybe with figures that haven't just been plucked out of thin air), but leave tax policy to the people we can vote out. One of the GMC's good practice guidelines is not to allow personal predjudice to influence your management of a patient, seems to me predjudice is rife here.

[rexclark]

I think all supermarkets should follow Saisnsbury's forward thinking. £7 for 8 Stellas, £6 for 8 Stella 4%.

[amaidment]

No that is not how it will work. The big stores sell the value stuff at a loss, and that will price it out.

Don't forget the distilliers can set the price themselves and they will still want people to buy the stuff.

[Paul ™]

I think it's unfair to people who drink sensibly (or reasonably sensibly). But there's f**k all we can do. I'm sure they'll get there laws through, in Scotland first of course.

[rexclark]

Thankfully it looks like they haven't (yet!)

[ampersand]

Great news! I'm going to celebrate by lying in a gutter and drinking paint stripper cider.

[rexclark]

lol

[rachbon]

In that second quote I never said I drank sensibly, I just felt sorry for people who did.

I blame BnM's.

[jump]

ah f**k being sensible. it's not like like i'm running about the streets punching people and smashing windows when i'm pished! i just like to drink a bottle of vodka in the house at the weekend! i should be able to do that on the cheap after working all week in a shite, low paid job.

[rachbon]

Never understood why people drink at home, for me alcohol is just a tool for socialising at parties, pubs, clubs blah blah blah.

[oafc0000]

i don't have enough money to go out every weekend.

so on weekends when me and rexclark are staying in, we'll just drink in the house on a saturday night.

[dakyras]

I have a kid... I need drink at home to survive

[oafc0000]

Aye, theres nothing like a few glugs of Cognac after you've got the kids settled down ...

[oafc0000]

I can see you, in a year's time, with an unshaven face, a pile of glass bottles at your feet, and the sound of a child crying over Countdown on a Monday afternoon.

[rexclark]

Never understood why people drink at home, for me alcohol is just a tool for socialising at parties, pubs, clubs blah blah blah.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Well it looks like this is going to be a reality. Scotland is poised to bring it in and now Cameron has announced a consultation.

[Kyelo]

Will make no difference to drinking habits!

Edited March 23, 2012 by Kyelo

[Rufus Gwertigan]

It will be a case of "watch this space". There is a link between price and alcohol abuse. The figures quoted are something like alcohol is 69% cheaper than it was in 1980 and there are 9000 deaths a year directly attributable to alcohol abuse, 3 times more than in 1984.

Whilst the modelling done on the effect of pricing can seem bewildering they are clear in talking over a decade to see any real impact.

[Kyelo]

It will be a case of "watch this space". There is a link between price and alcohol abuse. The figures quoted are something like alcohol is 69% cheaper than it was in 1980 and there are 9000 deaths a year directly attributable to alcohol abuse, 3 times more than in 1984.

Whilst the modelling done on the effect of pricing can seem bewildering they are clear in talking over a decade to see any real impact.

[A-Rob]

This proposed laws has it's pros and cons like any other law.

Here in Malta we are having the same problem, young teens are buying cheap alcohol from bottle shops and supermarkets getting wasted and causing problems in the public places. And this problem is getting worse and worse.

Clubs and bar owners are complaining that there not selling enough to compesente for their rents, there are insiting with the goverment to introduce a law similiar to this.

I think this kind of law will help to reduce to binge drinking amoung the youths, so in a way I agree with it.

On the hand it's not fair for people who enjoy their drinks responsibly, however it's wont effect them much if there is a levy on each unit, since most probably they will not buy in huge amounts to get washed. But rather buy a few drinks to enjoy at home or with their friends

[Paul ™]

"Is there anything he could organise in a brewery?"

So it looks like another U-Turn for the Government on this in England & Wales.

Meanwhile in Scotland it's on hold due to ongoing legal action against it.

[RobertProsineckisLighter]

Shant is one the few escapes left for the 'squeezed middle'