Minimum alcohol pricing - Authoritarian scumbags

[Fittster]

"Plans for a minimum price for alcohol in England and Wales are to be announced by ministers.

Shops and bars will be prevented from selling drinks for less than the tax they pay on them.

The minimum pricing would work out at 38p for a can of weak lager and £10.71 for a litre bottle of vodka."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12212240

Nice to see the political scum deciding another aspect of our lives for us.

[Matt_N]

Article said:

but most alcoholic drinks would be unaffected because they are currently priced above the level ministers are proposing.

Doesn't really make much difference from what I heard on the radio this morning.

[Tsippy]

I guess like most taxes, they'll claim it's saving the planet lives of people and up them each year from now on to continue their victorious crusade.

[rs1952]

First they came for the smokers, and I did nothing because I did not smoke

Here we go again ........

[Tsippy]

rs1952 said:

First they came for the smokers, and I did nothing because I did not smoke

Here we go again ........

It'll be sweets and fast food next as they cause 'Morbid Death Inducing Evil Scary Obesity'. The number of weight loss shows and documentaries covering fatties is demonstrating that's the intention.

[Munter]

Better plan. Make the low alcohol (2% ish), stuff cheaper through reduced tax which should encourage people to buy that.

[OllieC]

Munter said:

Better plan. Make the low alcohol (2% ish), stuff cheaper through reduced tax which should encourage people to buy that.

Why would anyone want to drink that ?!

shock horror, the govt is comprised of cretins yet again.

[Rude-boy]

rs1952 said:

First they came for the smokers, and I did nothing because I did not smoke

Here we go again ........

Although first it was the Hunters...

[Hugo a Gogo]

a ludicrous idea

mind you, I did watch 'Ready Steady Drink' on BBC3 last night, and it was a quite shocking and eye-opening really (and eye-closing at points)
a big section of UK society has something seriously wrong with it and its attitude to drinking
same can be said for Scandos and a few others but Brits just go mad for the gargle

[paul99]

There would be more of an impact if they got rid of the cheap high strength ciders/beers like Special Brew, White Lightening etc.. The only people who drink that crap are tramps, alcoholics and kids.

Edited by paul99 on Tuesday 18th January 09:30

[Fittster]

paul99 said:

There would be more of an impact if they got rid of the cheap high strength ciders/beers like Special Brew, White Lightening etc.. The only people who drink that crap are tramps and kids.

Why shouldn't you be able to drink yourself to death if you so choose? There already exist hundreds of laws to deal with any anti-social aspects of alcohol.

[Hugo a Gogo]

I would say a large majority of people getting absolutely rat-arsed in the streets of cities and towns of Britain every weekend are not buying from the offie anyway

[Hugo a Gogo]

Fittster said:

There already exist hundreds of laws to deal with any anti-social aspects of alcohol.

a few more of them should be enforced, like bars not serving people who are already blind drunk

[thinfourth2]

Ha ha the tories are the party of small government, nope same idiots different ties. I love it when they bring in more fiddling laws.


It is also utterly useless as it won't effect the pissed up idiots in town centers where the pubs charge alot.


So an utterly useless law

Apart from

Supermarkets will be stopped from selling alchol below cost price so they won't undercut pubs as much.

So its a law that will do nothing to tackle the problem it was meant to tackle but it might help country pubs.

[Tsippy]

Hugo a Gogo said:

Fittster said:

There already exist hundreds of laws to deal with any anti-social aspects of alcohol.

a few more of them should be enforced, like bars not serving people who are already blind drunk

We used to refuse to serve drunks at the bar I worked at, unfortunately when they turned violent the Police were not interested in helping us so generally it was easier just to continue serving them as it kept the peace.

[IainT]

I don't tend to buy at the cheaper end of the market anyway - I like decent wine and qulality beers both home and imported. So I doubt this will impact me at all.

However I can not see the logic behind this. Without applying any thought to it then one can see a potential reduction in the quantity of cheap booze sold but the reality is that, the people who have problems, will still have problems and still buy enough to get smashed.

Probably by feeding their children on dog food to offset the price increase.

[Tsippy]

They know that it won't prevent abuse of alcohol, it's simply a method of increasing tax income through something that they know people enjoy.

Smoking is popular - increase tax
People need cars - increase tax on fuel
Most people drink - increase tax

it's a simple way of mass tax generation, and as I stated further above it's only a matter of time until they start taxing 'unhealthy food' to prevent the strain on the NHS from fatties

[thinfourth2]

And heres a radical idea.

Lets make laws that make it illegal to run around assaulting folk instead of trying to stop people getting pissed.

If assault was illegal then i am sure the police would do something about it.

[nelly1]

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/governm...

[paulrockliffe]

I thought they were just saying you can't sell it for less than the duty+VAT due on it? If that's the case then I'm not sure what the fuss is all about; it can't be common for that to happen anyway because if you do that not only are you paying for the stock costs out of your pocket, you're also paying some money to the tax man too.

It won't make any difference to any of the alcohol-related problems in society, but I can't see how it will affect me either?