Bye Bye cheap booze?

[Bunnylingus]

Scotland will enter a new age of temperance under radical plans aimed at curbing endemic drinking in a country with some of the worst alcohol abuse rates in the world.


Ministers unveiled new plans yesterday which will set a minimum price for drinks, based on the number of units they contain, and a ban on promotions such as buy-one-get-one-free offers. If the plans are approved, Scotland will become the first country in Europe to fix a minimum price on drinks.

South of the border, ministers have put the brakes on anti-drinking proposals out of fear that the already struggling pub industry will be hit even harder during the recession. But the Scottish Nationalist Party, which made the proposals, has vowed to push ahead with its temperance measures in a country where alcohol abuse now outstrips heart problems as the main source of hospital admissions.

Under the new rules, retailers will be obligated to stop alcohol being sold for "pocket money prices", with cut-price offers banned. The display and marketing of alcohol will also be restricted to specific areas within off-sales premises and new legislation will introduce a "social responsibility fee" for retailers who fail to clamp down on excessive under-age drinking.

Under pressure from student groups, publicans and retail groups, the SNP backed down from a proposal which would have meant only those over the age of 21 would be allowed to buy alcohol in off-licences. They also decided against implementing an initiative where supermarkets and off-licences would have had to set up separate alcohol checkouts.

But if the new laws are passed, local constabularies will be able to enforce regional age limits in areas where youth drinking is a major problem.

Alcohol abuse is thought to cost Scotland's economy more than £2.25bn every year. New figures released by the NHS last month revealed that Scotland has the eighth highest rate of alcohol consumption in the world.

According to the statistics, every person over 16 drinks an average of 23 units of alcohol every week. That is the equivalent of 570 pints of beer, or 125 bottles of wine, or 42 bottles of vodka a year. More than 1,500 Scots die from alcohol related problems every year.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's Health Secretary, said yesterday: "Plummeting prices and aggressive promotion have led to a surge in consumption, causing and adding to health problems ranging from liver and heart diseases to diabetes, obesity, dementia and cancers."

SNP ministers declined to say what their minimum price per unit of alcohol would be, but research at the University of Sheffield has shown that fixing prices at 40p per unit led to a 2.6 per cent reduction in overall consumption and a 4 per cent reduction among young drinkers.

The proposals have been heavily criticised by retail groups and the drinks industry, who believe that setting minimum prices will penalise ordinary, law-abiding drinkers while failing to tackle the root causes of alcohol abuse.

David Poley, the chief executive of the Portman Group, the foundation set up by the drinks industry to promote responsible alcohol consumption, said yesterday: "The Scottish government is not listening to reason. These plans will punish all drinkers while only scratching at the surface of our drinking culture. People who drink to get drunk would not be influenced by these measures. We should be targeting the harmful minority through better education and effective law enforcement."

Whisky manufacturers reacted with fury to the minimum price plan, claiming it was likely to be illegal under EU and international law. And they warned it may backfire by encouraging other countries to bring in "discriminatory" restrictions on Scotch whisky, damaging a £3bn-a-year export trade.

Gavin Hewitt, the chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, said: "We agree that attitudes to alcohol in Scotland need to change, but minimum pricing is not the answer."

Health officials across the country are increasingly concerned that Britain is becoming more and more addicted to alcohol. In 2002, approximately 475,000 hospital admissions were alcohol related, but this figure almost doubled to 811,000 in 2006.

The British Medical Association believes more than a quarter of all drink-related deaths could be prevented by a 10 per cent increase in duty. Their proposal, however, is bitterly opposed by the drinks industry.

As part of the plans, a minimum price for alcohol will beset.

It is expected to be about 40p per unit - which would see the price of a bottle of cheap supermarket own brand whisky soar by 40 per cent and vodka by more than 60 per cent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...k-1635898.html

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...6908-21167053/


Ummm. This makes little sense to me. People will still drink as much in a lot of cases I reckon, thus removing a lot of money from other parts of the economy.

What do you all think then?

[Elspeth]

So many good and bad things about this.
I'm hoping it's going to drive more people to pubs and clubs. At the moment a lot of people are staying in with a carryout as it's much cheaper.

I'll write a more in depth reply later. When I can organise my thoughts.

[weefi]

i think its pants. not looking forward to it at all. it will be interesting to see by how much pubs and clubs put drinks prices up...


having just read elspeths post- am i a bit confused about what they are actually doing with this price nonsense? my understanding was that all alcohol was going to be subject to price increases which would therefore affect pubs and clubs as well?

[ladysavage]

i don't think it'll really make a huge difference to many of our premium brands, if anything the company i work for are kinda hoping that it'll push folk into buying them, as if there's only pence difference between rough-as-arseholes vodka and Smirnoff, folk may plump for the brand.

[Bunnylingus]

So many good and bad things about this.
I'm hoping it's going to drive more people to pubs and clubs. At the moment a lot of people are staying in with a carryout as it's much cheaper.

I'll write a more in depth reply later. When I can organise my thoughts.

Fairly sure that it's gonna apply to pubs, clubs etc too.

I think it's gonna push people to drink in the house more, and I think that the problem lies beyond cheap drink - plenty of other countries have cheap booze and their abuse rates are much lower.

It'd require a total overhaul of the way we think about and thus treat alcohol, and I'm not sure how we could do it but this to me seems wrong.

[Elspeth]

i think its pants. not looking forward to it at all. it will be interesting to see by how much pubs and clubs put drinks prices up...

It shouldn't make much difference to be honest. It will affect supermarkets far more. Due to the bulk they buy in at, they have the ability to buy in at a cheaper price than the wholesalers to bars/pubs/clubs.
If you buy it in cheap, you can sell it on cheap and still make a margin. Saying that, supermarkets often work on a much smaller margin than wholesalers.

[Witch]

Like Rachael says, there are other countries which have cheap alcohol, it seems to be the way we think about alcohol and treat it that's the problem. Putting prices up wont resolve anything but people spending more on alcohol and possibly staying in more to drink it.
I'm unsure how to best deal with the abuse of drink in Scotland but prices going up certainly isnt it.

[LesMTS]

i think its pants. not looking forward to it at all. it will be interesting to see by how much pubs and clubs put drinks prices up...

It's not been passed yet and I'm not at all sure that it will be.

[Bunnylingus]

I also don't know how much point there is in targeting people our age/older - I don't think there's much that could change our attitudes.

I think providing better leisure facilities for younger people is really important - if you've got nothing to do but drink then it makes sense that you're going to. It wouldn't solve everything but it might help, more than I think proposals like this would.

David Poley, the chief executive of the Portman Group, the foundation set up by the drinks industry to promote responsible alcohol consumption, said yesterday: "The Scottish government is not listening to reason. These plans will punish all drinkers while only scratching at the surface of our drinking culture. People who drink to get drunk would not be influenced by these measures. We should be targeting the harmful minority through better education and effective law enforcement."

Aye, this guy said it quite well I think.

[Jaemi]

Makes sense to me.
The "talk" is that a bottle of vodka will retail at no less than £10.50.
When they say that "moderate drinkers will not be effected", what they're saying is that jakeballs won't be able to get they're 27p cans of super and their £3 tesco value gin anymore.

Which means the won't be scudding 2 bottles a day before breakfast, then turning up at hospitals looking for liver transplants every weekend.

[ladysavage]

By and large alcohol prices haven't really risen in line with the increase in people's increase in pay, certainly most of the booze i used to buy in off licences isn't hugely different in price from when i first started buying drink 12 years ago (in comparison to fags for instance). Even pubs haven't gone up too insanely, though gone are the days of change from £2 for a pint of Guinness. However in the last 12-18 months or so, the cost of making the alcohol, especially here in Scotland has pretty much doubled and there is only so long the industry can take this hit without passing it onto the folk buying the booze.

[Tacky]

I think it's something that's ingrained in culture, so the quote from that David Poley guy really is the best idea - education, getting people to realise they have a choice, and to learn about moderation.

I mean, temperance laws make sense in some aspects...hmm. All im thinking is i was amazed by the section in the People's Palace showing the protests against alcohol, and the pro-temprance groups.

I suppose my perspective has been biased by my dad's death - heart disease from so much drinking.

[G the Director]

fuck em

[Bunnylingus]

Makes sense to me.
The "talk" is that a bottle of vodka will retail at no less than £10.50.
When they say that "moderate drinkers will not be effected", what they're saying is that jakeballs won't be able to get they're 27p cans of super and their £3 tesco value gin anymore.

Which means the won't be scudding 2 bottles a day before breakfast, then turning up at hospitals looking for liver transplants every weekend.

That's what I don't agree with - you can't just solve addictions people have had for years by making it more expensive - they'll find the money from somewhere or get it on the black market.

[I'm Your God Now]

Buy Buy Cheap Booze, that's a plan.