I think the government should be responsible for educating people about the various implications of alcohol but I don't think this is the way to go about it.
Having said that, I dont know how else to go about it?
Just says on sky news that it will increase the amount of money the average drinker spends on booze by £21-23 a YEAR .. by my reckoning thats less than 50p a week . Surely that wont have any impact whatsover ?
When we signed up with a doctors in our area, we had to answer a few questions about how much we drank. I downplayed it and said about 5 glasses of wine a week, and then got an extra leaflet given to me about liver damage/heart disease/AA groups etc. blimey, if they knew how much I really drank! Having said that, I dont drink shots, I have only forgotton a whole night's events once. I've never been carried home. I dont actually know what the 'average drinker' spends on booze but I think their 'guidelines' are misguided!
To be honest, all this 'educating the public' nonsense is starting to get on my tits. The public knows full well the dangers of (excessive) alcohol consumption and no amount of education is going to stop them getting utterly wankered whenever they want to. Smokers have known for decades about the risks of smoking but they still do it. The latest crap about plain wrappings for fags and keeping them under the counter etc. Do they honestly think that this will stop people smoking?
I very much doubt the "evidence" that this will make any difference - a few hypothetical models built by university students! Whilst I am not a smoker, and I find pubs/ restaurants much more pleasant since the smoking ban, I was still against it in principle. Wish Governemnet would just leave us alone to make our own (legal) choices.
I think the government should be responsible for educating people about the various implications of alcohol but I don't think this is the way to go about it.
Having said that, I dont know how else to go about it?
This. My brother in law was an alcoholic and will get a drink even if it's £50 a can, it has destroyed his life and in the end it took his life. It's not great being powerless in this as he's always a bit of a lad... Very difficult to take him out of the pub when he's the life and soul of the party without looking like a spoiler... In the end it all caught up with him and he died a lonely death.
the smoking ban is wonderful! As for alcohol, the supermarkets are being irresponsible is selling loss-leading cheap alcohol, since they have refused to stop this practice I think a minimum price is the right way to go - I don't know what level it should be at, not too high but enough to put a stop to loss-leading and enough so that a bottle of cider costs more than a bottle of water.
I don't see that this will affect me as I don't often buy cheap booze. I am a drinker though, so don't imagine I am some tea-totaller with a point to prove.
My view is that alcohol is way too easy to get these days - I don't think the government would be able to put the genie back in the bottle, but alcohol sold in every supermarket and every corner shop should never have been allowed. It should only be sold in public houses or off-licences. This will never happen, so they're trying another way. I'm not blaming the current incumbents - this started long before they came to power.
To a certain extent I think the government should be applauded here. The usual route to increases prices is to increase tax/duty. That would have resulted in price rises across the board and possibly more pubs going out of business. By setting a minimum price instead then this has practically zero effect on pubs, whilst stopping the loss leading in supermarkets and the sort of deals like 3l of White Lighting for a quid.
The totally free market (which doesn't really exist anywhere apart from in economic theory) relies on fair competition between businesses and educated consumers. Supermarkets loss leading and a the education/intelligence of a good proportion of so-called binge drinkers means the free market would never result in a solution.
As stated above, the genie is out the bottle, alcohol sales should be restricted to off-licenses and licenses premises only.
Binge drinking related A and E cases are a drain on NHS money. Let them pay for their treatment. I don't think that everyone should be held responsible for the few and suffer the rise in alcohol prices. But, how do we solve the problem of under age drinking and binge drinking? I really have no answer. People have mentioned education on the risks of heavy drinking. This may have a minimal effect but if people want to drink to excess they will. It's costing the tax payer through extra policing and A and E admissions. Pubs are struggling to make ends meet so this will do them no favours at all. Glad l live in Holland where a crate of 24 bottles of decent beer costs between 6-8 euro's.
By all the figures from our Government I should be dead. I must be one of the worst people in the world with a drink problem. The thing is I have never been in trouble when drinking or had the need for treatment.
I don't drink shots or alcopops I drink real ale and wine. Happy drink a bottle of wine with dinner.
I keep fit and eat well.
Why should the 30 odd million of us that don't have a problem be made to pay as always for the problems of just a few.
Governments as always using this to make more money from us.
Prices aren't actually going to be effected that much. To use your example, if you get a create of 24 bottles, at 1.8 units per bottle (so a "premium" larger), the new minimum price is £17.28, or 72p per bottle. Is that really too much? There's very few largers you can get for less than 99p a can in an off-license.
Using a real world example, Asda have a 12 bottle box of Bud for £8 currently. Each bottle is going to be around 2 units, so that's 24 units in the box, at 40p a unit that makes the new price £9.60, hardly a massive increase (20% in fact), and that's on the cheapest deal they are doing. On bottles/can not on special offer there will be little or no price increase. The idea is to stop people just shopping around for the cheapest way to get lashed.
As soon as we get out of this 'its not my fault' culture then the world will be a better place. Piss artists will always be piss artists they will always find a way to get their booze, if the price goes up and they cant afford it they will nick it! Oh well I suppose this new legislation will appeal to the average Daily Mail reader so they will think in their cocooned world that something real is being done.
Clearly this is all about raising additional revenue for the gov't.
They have realised that a lot of people do drink at home before heading out for an evening, mainly because they can't afford a whole Friday or Saturday night in the pub this obviously leads to lowering income generated by alcohol sales so how do you raise that again? Put a minimum limit on a unit of alcohol.
If they were indeed intent on lowering the number of alcohol related illnesses/injuries then you would stop 24 hour drinking, really what need is there to have a licence that allows the local alcoholics to feed their addiction at 9am? If you want to put prices up then you would increase it by a lot more than they are proposing. Seriously for us that drink will it stop you purchasing alcohol from the local shop if its a couple of quid more than it used to be? It will probably be a minor inconvenience, for an alcoholic it wouldn't stop them at all.
This is just a stunt to get more tax,they don't want to hit tax income and I think they will be pleased if a lot of this generation die of drink early,takes the strain off the pensions black hole. Always gets me that,constantly going on about the age time bomb,then at us that smoking,eating practically anything and drinking are bad for you!
Binge drinking has been bought on because society has changed. When I started work it was at the end of an age where even at work you had a few pints here and there,the local I used was full of office workers having a pint or two at lunchtime,yes you had a few but it was no problem.Now though if I turned up for work in the morning with a whiff on drink on me I would be sacked and have a good chance of jail.Drink has now become a complete no-no in a lot of jobs, so people most of which are under well over double the stress levels they were save it all up until they can have a blow out without worrying about work etc and go for it.A lot of people are struggling in this shithole Britain has become so a once a week escape to oblivion seems attractive.
Yes, in the long term. It's not about stopping a 54-year-old man from continuing his lifelong habit, it's about slowly removing cigarettes from the view, and thus the minds of many people, particularly kids. It's adding a stigma to smoking. I think it's absolutely the right thing to do.
I think it's important not to look at the effect it will have on us now, but the long term change it might bring about, and that applies to the alcohol too.
I have a mate who is on minimum wage, he works bloody hard in all weathers in a quarry. His release is on friday when he leaves work, he buys a pkt of tobacco ( he doesn't smoke during the week cos he can't afford it ) And has a few pints on his way home. At home he's probably got a couple of these large btls of cider that are public enemy No.1 at the moment.
He has never been in trouble through drinking and has never been a nuisance through drinking either.
Why should he be 'punished' cos the Government is afraid to takle the nobs and nobesses who create chaos in town centres?
We all have our own 'guilty' pleasures ( 'guilty' cos the man says it aint right ) and that's his.
The Government really wanna get in touch with the normal man/woman on the streets. How many of them have a friend like the one I've just described? None of 'em I would guess, so they aint gotta clue it's a side of 'existence' that they know 'F' all about.
In my personal opinion the binge drinking culure has been made worse by the rise of the chain pubs like Wetherspoons where the pub is (normally) run by a young manager who is incentivised with bonuses on turnover hence they introduce Happy Hours and free shots so by 10 o'clock half the people in the pub are totally wankered and are either in the street throwing up or looking for a fight. Compare that to pubs run by traditional landlords such as The Robin Hood in Bexleyheath where that kind of behaviour is just not tolerated.
As for paying more for alcohol I like everyone on this post resent having to pay more for the actions of the few. And while we are at it I would appreciate it if instead of Doctors lecturing me on how many glasses of wine/beer I can drink in a weeek they paid some attention to the fact that our hospitals are dirty and people come out a good deal sisker than when they went in!
Make the Pubs shut earlier again and people will not have time to drink at home before hand.
Also when i was young you could drink at 15/16. You went to your local pub got a beer and sat in the corner quietly. If you got Billy Large Plums you were soon sorted out. Every town had it's under age pubs and the Police knew where they were.
These days Kids have no option but to get drunk in parks or on street corners with no body to keep them in check.
I also believe it taught you to respect your Elders a little more as you would end up talking to them in your local and form lose friendships with people of all ages and walks of life.
Comments
Plus I like getting 3 crates for £20
getting far too expensive to live here
Having said that, I dont know how else to go about it?
Having said that, I dont drink shots, I have only forgotton a whole night's events once. I've never been carried home. I dont actually know what the 'average drinker' spends on booze but I think their 'guidelines' are misguided!
Education is better than punitive methods.
As for alcohol, the supermarkets are being irresponsible is selling loss-leading cheap alcohol, since they have refused to stop this practice I think a minimum price is the right way to go - I don't know what level it should be at, not too high but enough to put a stop to loss-leading and enough so that a bottle of cider costs more than a bottle of water.
My view is that alcohol is way too easy to get these days - I don't think the government would be able to put the genie back in the bottle, but alcohol sold in every supermarket and every corner shop should never have been allowed. It should only be sold in public houses or off-licences. This will never happen, so they're trying another way. I'm not blaming the current incumbents - this started long before they came to power.
As I say, just my view.
That is the thin end of the wedge.
The totally free market (which doesn't really exist anywhere apart from in economic theory) relies on fair competition between businesses and educated consumers. Supermarkets loss leading and a the education/intelligence of a good proportion of so-called binge drinkers means the free market would never result in a solution.
As stated above, the genie is out the bottle, alcohol sales should be restricted to off-licenses and licenses premises only.
I don't drink shots or alcopops I drink real ale and wine. Happy drink a bottle of wine with dinner.
I keep fit and eat well.
Why should the 30 odd million of us that don't have a problem be made to pay as always for the problems of just a few.
Governments as always using this to make more money from us.
*Thinks about a swift return to France.
Using a real world example, Asda have a 12 bottle box of Bud for £8 currently. Each bottle is going to be around 2 units, so that's 24 units in the box, at 40p a unit that makes the new price £9.60, hardly a massive increase (20% in fact), and that's on the cheapest deal they are doing. On bottles/can not on special offer there will be little or no price increase. The idea is to stop people just shopping around for the cheapest way to get lashed.
youtu.be/KUpDJ2W_oZY
Piss artists will always be piss artists they will always find a way to get their booze, if the price goes up and they cant afford it they will nick it!
Oh well I suppose this new legislation will appeal to the average Daily Mail reader so they will think in their cocooned world that something real is being done.
Typical of the morally bankrupt morass this country has become.
They have realised that a lot of people do drink at home before heading out for an evening, mainly because they can't afford a whole Friday or Saturday night in the pub this obviously leads to lowering income generated by alcohol sales so how do you raise that again? Put a minimum limit on a unit of alcohol.
If they were indeed intent on lowering the number of alcohol related illnesses/injuries then you would stop 24 hour drinking, really what need is there to have a licence that allows the local alcoholics to feed their addiction at 9am? If you want to put prices up then you would increase it by a lot more than they are proposing. Seriously for us that drink will it stop you purchasing alcohol from the local shop if its a couple of quid more than it used to be? It will probably be a minor inconvenience, for an alcoholic it wouldn't stop them at all.
I think it's important not to look at the effect it will have on us now, but the long term change it might bring about, and that applies to the alcohol too.
He has never been in trouble through drinking and has never been a nuisance through drinking either.
Why should he be 'punished' cos the Government is afraid to takle the nobs and nobesses who create chaos in town centres?
We all have our own 'guilty' pleasures ( 'guilty' cos the man says it aint right ) and that's his.
The Government really wanna get in touch with the normal man/woman on the streets. How many of them have a friend like the one I've just described? None of 'em I would guess, so they aint gotta clue it's a side of 'existence' that they know 'F' all about.
As for paying more for alcohol I like everyone on this post resent having to pay more for the actions of the few. And while we are at it I would appreciate it if instead of Doctors lecturing me on how many glasses of wine/beer I can drink in a weeek they paid some attention to the fact that our hospitals are dirty and people come out a good deal sisker than when they went in!
Also when i was young you could drink at 15/16. You went to your local pub got a beer and sat in the corner quietly. If you got Billy Large Plums you were soon sorted out. Every town had it's under age pubs and the Police knew where they were.
These days Kids have no option but to get drunk in parks or on street corners with no body to keep them in check.
I also believe it taught you to respect your Elders a little more as you would end up talking to them in your local and form lose friendships with people of all ages and walks of life.