alcohol price to go up

My mam sometimes reminisces about a club that she used to go to every Friday, and she says every week some poor lad would get thrown down the stairs. That was the 1960s. I've never seen anyone thrown down some stairs, certainly not every week.

 

Thrown down the stairs is one thing CL - mass knife ownership/use is something very different,

 

Putting the price of alcohol up will not change a thing as we all well know. It wasn't that long ago that the government decided to give pubs/clubs etc. free rein on opening hours. The understanding being that the longer hours would help combat the drunken situations we have now by spreading the alcohol intake over a longer period during the course of a day. What rubbish! It was obvious to me if not others that this would have the opposite effect and allow people to stay drunk all day instead of part of it. These opening times need to be reversed asap. Okay, it won't cut down on drink intake, but it may perhaps take people home at a more reasonable time of day and leave others the peace of a nights sleep.

Secondly, I'm glad to see tax going on drink for a change. It's nearly always cigarettes that get 'clobbered' for high tax increases. I just wonder, if the tax was taken off a packet of cigarettes, just how much they would actually cost. It is considered that smoking is more harmful to us than drinking. I'm not so sure, when you make a comparison between the two, I think drink causes more suffering and expense than ever to all of us, through health issues, GBH and vandalism.

 

I'm afraid that's a media myth. There was a study a couple of years ago, and while its obvious that not everybody is going to tell the truth either way (some will say they do arm themselves when they don't and vice versa), it was found that far fewer youths carry weapons than we would be led to believe.

Most people are not daft. They know that if you carry a knife, you have much less freedom. Many nightclubs now equip the door staff with hand held metal detectors and even those that don't, have a policy of searching people on a whim. People also realise that if you get caught with a blade and they don't have a most excellent excuse, there's a high chance they'll get locked up even if they don't use it, and finally they also realise that if they do get into a fight and they pull a knife, they are either going down for a long time or they are going to get very seriously hurt because in the face of mortal danger, people aren't going to take any chances. Most youths know all this, and are unarmed and non-hostile. I'm afraid it is the media that portrays our youth as demons, and by us believing that we are in fact turning them into such. If we alienate them, we are the ones making enemies, not the other way round. But even that isn't a recent issue. I can't remember the details but there is a write-up by some Roman or ancient Greek chap that talks about the youth of the day in much the same way as we do now.

 

I'm sorry Armandii, what I'm trying to say is, I'm not happy about any tax increases but it makes a change for it to go on drink instead of always hitting the smokers and I realise it's to fill the governments coffers. But it still doesn't alter the fact that alcohol causes more issues in all respects than cigarettes. I don't by any means want to take away the enjoyment that people get from either of these but something has to be done about the grief excessive drink causes and taxing won't solve it.

 

About 50p

 

The last time I was out in our office in Qatar a carton of UK ciggies was just under £9 - and that was the UK product shipped half way around the world & sold at the full price for westerners. I have little doubt that had I shopped around in the locals market I could have paid significantly less.. shame I dont smoke, really.

 

I agree with Sheal and I have seen families split up through alcohol but not through smoking. A friend stuck it for years but finally had to leave when her husband once too often lay for days not knowing what day it was, lost his driving license - spent thousands on rehab - got into so much debt and lost his business and in the end the whole family suffered.

 

I was just basing that on what 20 Marlboro costs outside the EU Armandii, can't wrap my head around complex maths at this time of night