There’s a particularly obnoxious article in today’s Independent from Steve Richards in which he argues that the government should use the example of the smoking ban as a blueprint for alcohol policy. Of course, when the smoking ban came in, all its supporters argued strenuously that smoking was a special case and the principle was never going to be extended to other areas. Well, that really worked out, didn’t it?
Needless to say, he is robustly taken to task in the comments.
A far more positive view of call me Daves attempt to deflect attention via smoke and mirrors from the plummet our economy is taking is available here
ReplyDeleteAlistair Campbell is making a film about middle-class binge-drinking called 'Hidden Alcoholics', and he's done a piece for today's Times. Good antidote to the anti-working class imaqery promoted by the BBC etc when they do reportage on the costs and consequences. The sub-text to it all is obvious and depressing. The feckless sub-classes spend all their fiddled benefits on getting drunk and causing social mayhem. I expect Campbell's piece is behind a Murdoch paywall, however...
ReplyDeleteGot some great stats from SIBA....
ReplyDeleteDespite falling beer consumption in the UK, we contribute 40% of the total beer excise revenue raised by 27 EU nations, whilst accounting for only 13% of total EU beer volumes
I found Alastair Campbell's piece online yesterday but on trying again today, it's vanished behind Mr Murdoch's paywall. Interestingly, he quotes a liver specialist who says that only 5% of his patients did their drinking in pubs. Make of this what you will...
ReplyDeleteAlastair Campbell will be presenting an episode of Panorama - a show with a long track record of anti-drink hysteria - next Monday on Britain's Hidden Alcoholics.
ReplyDeleteSurely a proportion of middle-class people have always been alcoholics - Asquith, Dylan Thomas, George Brown etc - and they aren't going to be remotely affected by minimum pricing.