Cameron, despite opposition from within his own cabinet (Lansley describes the plan as "absurd"), is determined to push ahead with plans for a minimum price for booze.
He is of the view that cheap booze is responsible for a minority of the country behaving irresponsibly.
Well, coming from a member of the Palace of Westminster which serves taxpayer subsidised booze at all hours of day and night (wherein a member was recently arrested for alcohol fuelled violence) maybe he is speaking from experience.
However, statistics would indicate (contrary to what Nanny would have us believe) that, as a country, we are actually drinking less. In September 2010 the BBC reported:
"Alcohol consumption in
2009 saw the sharpest year-on-year decline since 1948, figures from the
British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) suggest.
The association said UK drinkers were now consuming 13% less alcohol than in 2004, below the EU average.
Pubs, bars, off-licences, restaurants and supermarkets all saw alcohol sales fall, the HM Revenue and Customs data from UK producers and importers showed.
It is thought the decline may be due to the effect of the recession on spending, but could also be a sign that messages about responsible drinking have affected drinking habits.
The organisation said UK taxes on beer remained the second highest duty rate in EU - 10 times higher than in Germany and seven times higher than in France."
The alcohol fuelled violence that certain city centres see at night is down to a number of factors. However, two factors are key:
1 Certain people, no matter how little they have to drink, will behave like "animals" (my apologies to the animal kingdom); whilst the majority of us (even after an "elegant sufficiency") still manage to not smash a bottle over someone else's head or expose our arses.
2 Local councils, by allowing streets to become purely bar only ghettos, have created this problem because of their greed for licence fees etc. A mixed high street of shops, accommodation, restaurants, pubs, bars etc will attract a broad cross section of society rather than the knuckle dragging retards that swarm like flies over shit to bar only ghettos.
Minimum pricing will avail Cameron nothing.
Oh, and by the way, it's not just those who drink "Ace" lager from cans in the street that necessarily cause violent disorder; rumour has it that those overloaded on Krug etc (ie those for whom prices mean nothing) can also be a tad "boisterous"!
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I have just watched Theresa May waffling on about minimum pricing on the television. She also mentioned that alcohol is to be served in ‘one unit’ measures so that people can keep count on how much they are drinking.
ReplyDeleteEven though I do not care what ‘a unit’ is, I am told that a pint of beer is 3 and a glass of wine is 2. This means that beer will be served in a third of a pint glasses and wine glasses will only be filled to half their present amount. I have no idea on how many ‘units’ someone has decided what a shot of spirit is, but the measly amount served now is sure to be reduced.
When are the British public going to stand up for themselves?
They allowed the law to be rewritten which made it an offence, punishable by incarceration, for failing to ‘grass up’ the name and address of a person driving your car who has been caught on a speed camera.
They idly stood by as the right to remain silent when arrested was bastardised.
They watched smugly as consumers of legal brought and taxed tobacco were discriminated against.
And now, I fear, they will sit with their thumbs up their arses while these hypocrites introduce a stealth tax on all drinkers.
It is more than "ironic" that the people who dictate to us what is a "safe/desirable" level for booze happily will not be applying the rules to the gin soaked benches of Westminster.....these same people are also more than happy to ban the rest of the country from using other substances that they themselves have used/continue to use.
DeleteHypocrits!
I do sometimes wonder if Cameron is a Conservative at all. He appears to be in favour of an even bigger state and that state, interfering more and more in people's lives.
ReplyDeleteThis plan will punish everyone for the deeds of a few.
Why don't the police/courts/state enforce existing laws and clamp down on alcohol fueled disorder? Why aren't those drunk and out of control arrested? Why aren't landlords selling booze to already pissed yobs loosing their license.
What Mr Cameron should be asking himself is this;
Why do so many of those living in this country find the need to use booze to escape the reality and dispair of living in Cameron's, Blair's and Brown's world? I suspect if the reality of modern life in the UK wasn't so awful for so many, fewer would attempt to escape it through booze at every opportunity they get.
I am surprised that you have neglected to mention Britain's ridiculous nanny-state drinking laws when talking about the reasons for alcohol fuelled violence in city centres. I have lived in New York where some streets have the same wall to wall bar strips that you talk of, but there is very rarely any violence whatsoever. All bars in New York close at 4am but it is very rare that many people are left in there at 4am, each drinker having made their own way home at a time suitable to them thus avoiding the typical British turf-out-time arguments and fights that you see all the time in British towns and cities.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are constantly drinking against the clock because the bar shuts ridiculously early (many places in London still close at 11pm which is truly astounding for a so-called major city in the year 2012) and then all pile out looking for taxis at the same time, it doesn't take a genius to work out that that is going to increase the change of some argy-bargy.
Good point about "turf out time".
DeleteHowever, to some extent that is not as much of a problem as bars can stay open later.
However, London has a particular problem (ironic given that it is hosting the Olympics) namely that its decrepit tube and train system shuts down around midnight. Hence, even if pubs/bars stay open, people still have to dash at the same to time to get the last bus/tube/train home.
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http://www.olympicsdiary.com