Friday 20 April 2012

Just Say No

So far the petition on the government website opposing minimum alcohol pricing has made disappointingly slow progress. The more limited Save Our Scrumpy one has done much better.

Publican Sam has kindly provided a trendy logo for this petition, created by Designs of Hope. This is far better than my amateurish effort.

If you would like to use this on your blog or website, click here and cut and paste the appropriate HTML code.

5 comments:

  1. Maybe this could be the theme song

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2nq8DzYToE

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  2. That explains why the save our cider one is doing better. Better theme tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvvYO46J1xM

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  3. For some reason I saw this and Mudge sprang to mind

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAGENje0zRk

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  4. Ah yes, maybe I should make that my theme tune :-)

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  5. Hi PC, I thought I’d repeat here a comment which I made over at DP’s place, because if there’s one thing that drinkers need to be aware of, it’s the fact that no amount of campaigning on behalf of any persecuted group (which drinkers – both responsible and otherwise – look likely to be in the near future) has ever made any headway until significant numbers of people who are not of that group have added their support. Without the support of straight people, we’d still be slinging homosexuals into jail; without the support of men, women would still be resigned to a fate of washing dishes and popping out babies as the only career option available; and without the support of white people, there’d still be segregated buses and restaurants in the US. Big issues, yes, but the principle still holds other, smaller, “anti” campaigns.

    And as a very, very rare drinker whose viewpoint won’t be able to be brushed aside as “just biased” or as those of a “brewery shill,” like those of you regular beer-lovers will (as the campaign rolls on – just watch it go), believe me, it’s people like me whom you need to be getting on side – and getting on side now, before the anti-alcohol brigade have really got the bit between their teeth.

    “I’m sorry, Dick, but I probably won’t be signing the e-petition against minimum pricing. I’m so fed up with non-smoking drinkers still not accepting that it was their joining in with the anti-smoking jollities that has brought all this upon themselves, that as far as I’m concerned, they’re on their own on this one.

    “I’ve thought long and hard about this issue ever since we smokers saw it rolling inexorably over the horizon (even though very few non-smoking drinkers did, and fewer still can see the connection, even now), because I like a drink myself on occasion (although not as much as I like a smoke), and there’s a bit of me which wants to be magnanimous and big-hearted and say: ‘Just because you lot sat back smugly whilst we were getting a kicking, doesn’t mean that I should sit back and do the same now that you are getting one. I’m a better person than that.’

    “But the fact is, I’m still so angry at the ban and at everyone who played a part in it – even by their deafening silence – that these days I regard the targeting of
    any other group as a welcome break from everything – always and without exception – being the fault of smokers and no-one else. I admit that I breathe a sigh of relief with every drip-fed ‘alcohol-fuelled crime’ and ‘town centre chaos’ TV programme and newspaper headline I read these days, just because it’s no longer ‘only about smokers.’

    “Unless and until I see some real humble pie being eaten by non-smoking, erstwhile ban-supporting drinkers, then as far as I’m concerned, they can fight their own corner on this, just like they left us to do – and look how well that went.

    “I
    could be persuaded to support drinkers, but not without some show of support coming back in the opposite direction from them, because the way I see it, we both need each other now, and that has to work both ways; and as it was the drinkers who deserted the smokers in the first place, it has to be drinkers who make the first move to build some bridges now. For starters, I’d be interested to know how many previously ban-supporting drinkers have signed the e-petition for an amendment to the smoking ban, having seen the error of their ways. Yep – your guess is probably the same as mine. And we’re probably both right.

    “I rest my case.”


    Think about it, all you ale-lovers. The time to start recruiting your troops – including those who don’t share your liking for good beer – is now. Once landlords are obliged to limit the number of pints they can sell you in one visit, or when they are obliged to have three family-friendly, alcohol-free days a week, or when some ghastly court case renders them partly responsible for selling you the alcohol which you then drove home after consuming, it’ll be far too late.

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