Parlez~me~'n~Tory

Rightly Wry, Satirically RIGHT

Let’s get one thing clear. Minimum pricing on alcohol will NOT solve the problem of binge drinkers and underage drinkers.

What it will do is unfairly penalise the average man or woman in the street. The moderate drinker will now face having to pay extra for their favourite tipple in this misguided act.

A binge drinker will continue to do just that, binge their way through with little care or consequence to their family or outsiders.

An underage drinker will continue to obtain their illegal gains through the same channels but with increased sporadicity. Nobody will be safe.

Let’s face it, this idea is a tax hike by A N Other name designed to hit taxpayers in the pocket in an attempt to curb their enjoyment of a glass of wine at the end of a long hard working day. The ridiculous argument that the moderate drinker will be no worse than 11p per week off under the new scheme is just that, ridiculous.

What’s fundamentally wrong with this idealism is that the underage drinker doesn’t even pay tax let alone own the cash they are purchasing their alcohol with.

The Telegraph highlights a report Minimum pricing on alcohol should be introduced as successive governments have failed to tackle Britain drinking culture

The select committee, chaired by Labour MP Kevin Barron, says that setting a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol, to curb excessive drinking in England, could save more than 3,000 lives a year

The average moderate drinker would pay just 11 pence more per week for their alcohol if a minimum price of 40 pence per unit was set, the report said.

Alcohol can be bought for just 10 pence per unit – less than a bottle of water – in some stores, the report said.

That may be but the moderate drinker does not purchase meths or what other cheap crap you can bottle or can.

The moderate drinker by and large purchases to their pallet and that means wine, beer or spirits that are significantly higher in price and quality than mentioned.

Also, I believe we cannot leave it to the market to police. Simply the supermarkets will gang up on those with more cash in their pockets and lump the unfair levy on their choice of vintners special whilst keeping the Diamond White or Tenants Super Strength at rock bottom (just above the minimum price fee) as a loss leader.

One thing this report gets right is that is IT IS successive Governments that have failed to tackle the problem in the same way that it is successive Governments that have been the cause of this problem, namely:

Tony Blair 1997 – 2001
Tony Blair 2001 – 2005
Tony Blair 2005 – 2007 Gordon Brown 2007 – 2010

It was Tony Blair and the Labour Government that introduced the 24hr drinking licences within the UK, again as another tax earner. It was the Labour government that promoted a self obsessed drinking culture.

The problem we have in this country that has been heavily promoted not just in the past 12 years but largely in that timeframe is that there is a large number of people that wish to get ‘tanked up’ before hitting the club or bar they’re heading to. The reason? Because the drinks in that establishment are priced way too high, and what does this new proposal suggest?

I am not for one minute suggesting that prices are dropped across the country or establishment but merely suggesting that a sensible pricing regime is enforced.

When I was the age of clubbing I would not get tanked up prior to the event (often referred to as the ‘pre-lash’) but I would enjoy the time whilst it happened. Yes, I would often drink what I could in the time given at the bars before the club and what i could afford in the club but that is not what occurs today.

Many are the times when people start in the afternoon on cheap low quality alcohol or good quality alcohol they ‘acquire’ in a deliberate attempt to get ‘tanked up’ prior to even hitting the first bar.

Part of the problem is due to the massive closure of local pubs in this country under the current Government but I see little effort from the Cabinet and its representatives to change that any time soon.

I grew up in a pub from the ages of 11 to 16 and as an avid member of the darts team I would visit many pubs throughout the course of the year and see that those pubs were community based, in fact the whole scene was one of community. That has long since gone.

We, in this country need to reinvigorate the local pub scene so that the local public community and the local service community can work together from a local base (the pub) to police the local issues and to control the problems of the local people.

Going back to the supermarkets and their loss leaders this is not an issue in some areas such as Northern Ireland as they are not permitted to display Buy One Get One OFFers or even to supply them, also, alcohol is less visible in stores in NI compared to mainland UK. Maybe that helps? Maybe there are other issues with their culture that affect this issue instead?

Whilst we are on the subject of mainland UK and non-mainland UK why not consider this rather dramatic fact: ‘Fifteen of the 20 areas in the UK with the highest alcohol-related death rates between 1998 and 2004 are in Scotland, and the top five are all Scottish’.

Does that tell us something about the price of alcohol or something about the community within those Scottish regions?

I reiterate that this is not the issue you may think it is. If someone steals to fund their habit this will not stop them.

If they feel they have to have their fix then this will not help them and their family will suffer further.

Please think again.