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Curb your alcoholism – new British policy
Published: 15 February, 2010, 06:36
Edited: 16 February, 2010, 03:11
The British government plans to set a minimum price for alcohol and says bottles and cans must carry health warnings. It's part of an initiative to restrain binge drinking, which has been spiraling out of control.
Critics claim those who use alcohol responsibly will be hardest hit, not the heavy drinkers.
The young and the young at heart, going out on the town, many with the deliberate intention of getting drunk, became a common sight on the streets of British towns, large and small.
Ben McDonald, manager of “The Crown and Goose”, says that Camden is notorious for pub crawls.
“It’s got quite a lot of youths drinking on the streets, also, so that’s more the area that I would see as binge drinking – I see a lot of kids on street corners… drinking alcopops,” McDonalds states.
Binge drinking has become such a big part of the UK’s culture that the government plans to fight during this year’s election with proposals to cut alcohol abuse. They will involve tougher warnings on labels and setting minimum pricing for alcohol.
Pub and bar owners are likely to welcome the move – not necessarily because it will curb binge drinking, but because it could bring people back into the pubs, where alcohol is pricier. Supermarkets are likely to be hit hardest.
For example, a four pack of strong cider, bought from the supermarket, cost the equivalent of just $4.70. It’s a perfect example of big shops selling alcohol at below cost price to get customers through the door. If minimum pricing becomes a reality, the drink will more than double in cost.
But how hard will that really hit problem drinkers? Supermarkets have come out against the scheme, saying it will unnecessarily penalize responsible consumers and fail to curb the binge drinking culture.
It’s a complete turnaround for a government that previously fought to liberalize drinking laws, including 24-hour bar licenses, which have been blamed for a rise in binging. The distiller, the Portman Group, says minimum pricing is a blunt instrument.
Mike Thompson, Head of Communications and External Affairs, Portman Group, says that problem drinkers are actually the least sensitive to price changes.
“What will happen is this policy would penalize those who are responsible drinkers on low incomes,” Thompson claims. “It will make them pay more and it won’t change the behavior of people who unfortunately go out with the intention of getting drunk. What we need to be doing is focusing our policy on changing the harmful behaviour.”
Something so ingrained in the culture is unlikely to be changed overnight, but most agree that any attempt to curb drinking in the UK is a move in the right direction. And as all good addicts know, the first step towards a cure is admitting you’ve got a problem.
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Of course it will most adversely affect those on lower incomes who drink responsibly. And it will make little difference to the hardened drinkers. But what can we expect from the Government here........ or the so called "opposition" Conservatives (More interested in Political Correctness than sorting out the country's problems) and the almost equally useless Liberal Democrats. And who liberalised the opening hours of pubs and clubs in the first place? I can't recall the British public demanding it. Few wish to visit the pubs any longer since the smoking ban........ I don't smoke, but I really object to being told I can't! No, like the vast majority (all?) of new British Policy (several new and unnecessary laws every day and a surveillance society that seems to be growing exponentially) it makes life so miserable that when we are told by the government what we should eat and drink to stay healthy, some might think "why bother?" At times it seems that life here is hardly worth living.
Firstly, I don't think the British Govt IS planning to raise the price of alcohol in supermarkets. It was talked about but, I suspect pre-election considerations are giving it cold feet. There are really two different problems here: binge drinking in pubs and anti-social behaviour caused by over-consumption of cheap alcohol by youngsters, tho of course the latter is also often a symptom on occasions of the former. The present government reformed Britain's archaic licensing laws partly as a response to the former and to a degree it has had some effect, the idea being that binge drinking is encouraged by restrictive licensing laws (by definition "binge" drinking" occurs quite quickly over a comparatively short space of time. As far as the latter problem is concerned, cheap alcohol in shops is most certainly a cause. Many youngsters are tempted to buy the stuff who would not, I am sure, do so otherwise. I've seen it happen. Astrid claims that the smoking ban in pubs is unpopular: not so: it is now accepted by most and support for it has actually risen. The major factor in the decline in pubs is, as the RT film suggested, yet again, cheap alcohol in shops.