Minimum price of alcohol planned in England and Wales

The government is proposing a minimum price of alcohol in England and Wales in an effort to end a culture of binge drinking. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17482035

Strange with the cheaper prices in Spain, there doesn't appear to be such a problem with the Spanish young people!

Personally I think the irresponsible drinkers in the UK, who choose to get drunk, will still pay whatever the price. I really wonder who gains here !

Quote : Andrew Opie of the British Retail Consortium said the proposal was "seriously misguided".
"It's simplistic to imagine a minimum price is some sort of silver bullet solution to irresponsible drinking," he said.
"Irresponsible drinking has cultural causes and retailers have been hugely engaged in information and education to change attitudes to drinking.
"It's a myth to suggest that supermarkets are the problem or that a pub is somehow a safer drinking environment. Effectively, a minimum price is a tax on responsible drinkers."

Personally, I think 'cultural causes' is the operative phrase. There are still responsible drinkers in the UK, young and old. Why should we all pay the price...in more ways than one?

Copied from - http://www.sirc.org/publik/drinking3.html

• There is enormous cross-cultural variation in the way people behave when they drink. In some societies (such as the UK, Scandinavia, US and Australia), alcohol is associated with violent and anti-social behaviour, while in others (such as Mediterranean and some South American cultures) drinking behaviour is largely peaceful and harmonious.
• This variation cannot be attributed to different levels of consumption or genetic differences, but is clearly related to different cultural beliefs about alcohol, expectancies regarding the effects of alcohol and social norms regarding drunken comportment.
• The findings of both cross-cultural research and controlled experiments indicate that the effects of alcohol on behaviour are primarily determined by social and cultural factors, rather than the chemical actions of ethanol.

What do you think? Debate of the day .


Jan

I think that it is horrifying when you see pictures of young (England) tottering along the road drunk, or boys walking along the road swigging from bottles or cans. They are such easy prey for unscrupulous thieves etc. The shops are in competition with each other - and often have riduculous offers on in the booze department.

I would raise the age at which people can buy alcohol - or ban alcohol altogether!! I could cope with that very easily - but then again I don't drink alcohol!!!:lol:

I once had a conversation, at a social function years ago, with a very elderly and wise lady doctor. She made the point that alcohol causes as many problems as drugs and should have been made as illegal as recreational drugs, many years ago.
I like a tipple so find it hard to agree to that, but she had a point.
Off the point... She also predicted (this was about 15 years ago) that TB would become prevalent again in the UK, due to our lax border health controls, that is coming true so I hear.
I still do not think minimum pricing on alcohol is the answer...maybe better education, better upbringing and other factors!

I'll get a receipt prescription for a four pack of Fosters. As I can go private, can I have Bolinger too.

As for TB. Surprised we do not have other exotic diseases in abundance or do we?

Firstly I think its how the kids are bought up. The parents have to take some blame. I hate it when I see young girls out of their faces swigging drink in the town's streets. As for the "other exotic diseases" as Glyn say's, we will never know in truth, we have had so many people (myself included) go to exotic places in the world and no checks are ever carried out to see if we have picked anything up. And also people going in to the UK from exotic places are never checked either. A receipe for disaster I think.