Wednesday, 28 December 2011

Jumping on the wagon

The Daily Telegraph reports today that Call Me Dave is actively looking into the introduction of a minimum unit price for alcohol. I’ve gone through the arguments against this at length in the past – it is wrong in principle, even on its own terms it won’t work, and it is against EU competition law anyway. Several other bloggers have criticised the plan this morning – I thought Cranmer (not one of my usual sidebar links) offered one of the best summaries.

Perhaps part of Cameron’s thinking is to pick a fight with the EU, although it is unlikely that many of his natural supporters will be with him on this one, and ironically it would give UKIP the opportunity to open up some more clear blue water.

And can we expect Labour, which historically has claimed to be the champion of the poor, to fight him on this? I strongly suspect they will do so just as strongly as they stood up for working-class pubs and clubs in 2007. Mind you, it’s unlikely to affect the price of Chianti, is it?

Edit: and I see the Telegraph in its editorial column is not at all keen. Could this be the Coalition equivalent of Blair’s “marching yobs to the cashpoint”?

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8 comments:

  1. Sat In A Pub28 December 2011 at 10:56

    Hmmm. Well I actually hope that Labour do exactly like they did in 2007. That is reflect the majority opinion of their members. However you want to twist it, there's nowt wrong with that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous28 December 2011 at 11:24

    'Members' or Voters?
    If you are in all seriousness saying that a majority of Labour voters were in favour of the blanket ban, you're living in cloud cuckoo land. (The same place that a lot of Labour party
    MEMBERS exist.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous28 December 2011 at 12:09

    There are millions like the cap
    doffing appeasers,if their Fabian Masters say a turd is tasty,they'll chew it and
    say how tasty it was.
    There are plenty of State School
    educated backstabbers ,preaching
    well rehearsed lines like "the ban is here FOR EVER,FOR ETERNITY,as if such controls are sent from the GODS.These cringing Judases have their pieces of silver ,today,
    but tomorrow beckons the leafless tree ,the rope of reckoning.
    Ther will be no hiding place
    They will be found


    The Ticking Clock

    ReplyDelete
  4. Smoking Hot28 December 2011 at 12:24

    Ahhh more government support for the black market. White van prices set to rise because of demand m'thinks :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sat In A Pub28 December 2011 at 15:20

    Anon

    I clearly said "members". No organisation can do more than reflect its member's wishes-for better or worse. The fact that you and others on here don't like that is neither here nor there. Somehow I have the strange feeling that if their members had been against the ban, you would have a differnt oponion on the matter. Funny that...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Neville Grundy28 December 2011 at 15:24

    1st anon: Tyson clearly wrote 'members', and as he is an articulate chap with a good command of the English language, then that's what he meant.

    2nd anon: your village just phoned - they're sending someone to collect you.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Curmudgeon28 December 2011 at 15:44

    But Labour have only ever got themselves elected to power by (to a greater or lesser extent) ignoring the wishes of their members. If Labour wish to put forward a manifesto based on the collective wisdom of their membership, then I would confidently forecast a repeat of 1983.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pol Sci31 December 2011 at 13:03

    Mudge, can see what your trying to say with regards to Labour and their members.

    Its worth it however, to distinguish between activists and members.

    Inactive members (i.e. the majority of Labour members)have traditionally been far more moderate than regular activists.

    This arguably explains why Kinnock, Blair et. al. were so keen to actually empower individual members re: candidate selection and so forth.

    It's a distinction worth making.

    ReplyDelete

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