alcohol price to go up

I know that many will not approve, but I am very happy with this decision, even if it means that now and then I will have to pay a little more for a bottle of wine or a beer ..... Indeed, if it were up to me I would want alcohol only to be available two days a week .....

Alcohol causes enormous damage/ to begin with: the enormous health problems, to continue with the damage and vandalism under the influence of alcohol, not to mention the flood of staff dedicated to the recovery of alcoholics which needs to be paid.

The same goes for unhealthy foods: why do they not raise its price three times as much? I'm sure that the number of obese people would be reduced immediately!

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/919225-theresa-may-to-seek-minimum-alcohol-price-of-45p-per-unit

 

I wouldn't worry if it's band drink, but then i would be taxed on something i buy

we should have zero alcohol if anone drives

 

Wouldn't affect me at all as I generally only drink homemade wine costing around 30p to 40p/bottle.

 

Yet another example of the government trying to control every aspect of our lives by taxing and banning things ! What right have they to adjust the pricing of an item to control a minority problem . As it is a pricing control this will only affect the less well off in our society . It will have no effect on the better off , or the drunken louts.
I think the politicians should try to control A ) Themselves B) The economy.

 

There is no known research to back up the correlation between increased cost of drink and reduction in drinking. Therefore, I think it is a very silly tactic and destined to failure.

If a person is an alcoholic, then the more desperate they become, the more desperate measures they will take to obtain their fix. So, to counterbalance any increases in booze, they will decrease expenditure in other areas: food, rent, bills, clothing etc. And when that route is no longer viable ... the next option is crime: shoplifting, burglary etc,. or merely turning to contraband booze imported and containing goodness knows what (and in many cases those additional contents are far more damaging to health than the actual alcohol).

Binge drinking is predominantly the culture of youth. Young adults tend to have more disposable income and so the increase is unlikely to have much affect on that social group. Changing anything cultural can take a generation or two!h

Governments setting prices is a dangerous route to go within a democracy and interferes with the very basics of an economy run on capitalism and free markets.

The issues run far, far deeper than the price of booze! Binge drinking is a symptom and not the cause. We live in a society where "anything" goes. No one should be shamed or feel guilty about their life choices. Yet, when I was growing up not only did we have boundaries within the home to adhere to, there were very clear societal boundries and there was social boundaries. Once the social boundries were broken down, you have a society where once shame acted as a deterant, but now shame doesn't exist because we have progressed to being "understanding", "compassionate", "there, there, poor thing!"

A sense of being a "grown up" has also shifted dramatically! On a family forum I read, there are mothers speaking of 19 year olds as still "a child" (Really? Children vote now?)

Oh dear, sorry I must have stepped on my soap box *climbs back down and backs away* . ....

 

I was happy to stand and listen at your "speakers corner " Mum.

 

Binge drinking is predominantly the culture of youth , but incresing the price , will only affect people like us and if drink will get up , drugs price will go down ...giving just more problem and increse criminality .....
If I could, I would have just introduce a more severe law , a fee in the hospital for alchool related and a fee to the police .
If any youth will have to pay to get out of jail , even with them phone , laptop or trainers .....they may will learn the lesson.

 

Well said Harry, me and hubby rarely go out to the pub but we do enjoy a bottle of wine a couple of times a week in the comfort of our own home, why should we have this little luxury taken away by rocketing prices, totally pees me off

 

I disagree that binge drinking is a problem that is almost exclusive to youths. It may seem that way when you walk through a town or city centre on a friday or saturday night, but go in any local or workies club, and you'll always see the same faces, in there every time you go, already there when you arrive and still there when you leave. These are older folk, middle aged or older. I think there are government stats to back up that observation.

I also think that increasing the price of alcohol will only affect the responsible drinkers, as has already been said, anyone that feels they really need to drink will find a way to get it one way or another.

All that said, I think the fixed minimum is something like 40p per unit, which seems reasonable to me. There are certain brands that are aimed exclusively at one market, those that drink to get drunk. Certain cheap but potent chemical ciders that come in 2 litre plastic bottles are a prime example. I've drank such drinks in the past at parties, and I can honestly say that their appeal is not their flavour. They are horrible, but for some, that's not the point, the point is that they get you drunk cheaply. If the new law helps get rid of some of those brands, then I'm all in favour.

There are different kinds of 'drunk', and I don't believe its entirely down to the person. There's the happy drunk that loves everybody, the giggling drunk, and the aggressive, stupid drunk to name but a few. Based on my own observations (and not in any way backed up with stats that I know of), the chemical drinks are usually the ones that produce the aggressive drunks. I don't get drunk these days because I like a drink but i don't like to be drunk, but I sometimes get 'merry'. Real cider or red wine make me laugh, bitter just makes me chilled out, and lager makes me hyper and sometimes moody so I don't drink it any more.

My final thought on the subject is this. Statistically some of the healthiest countries in the world are in the Mediterranean countries, where wine is routinely enjoyed in abundance, so its not the alcohol that's the problem, but the way it is used, what its in, the culture around it, and the attitude of the consumer.

 

In blue plastic bottles and termed 'white' cider because there's so little apple juice in it there's hardly any colour? That stuff is normally fermented out to a much higher alcoholic strength (to save on fermenation vessel space) then 'diluted' to something approaching wine strength prior to carbonation/bottling.

Try giving your own homemade cider to people who drink the stuff in blue plastic bottles and they complain it taste too 'applely'. Perhaps it's actually for the best that they don't realise high alcohol cider can be made from diluted carton apple juice with added sugar for a fraction of the price of what's sold in big blue plastic bottles, even when it's 1 litre extra free.

 

If the government knew what they were talking about then binge drinking should have stopped 2 years ago when they put an extra tax on Special Brew.

That was their reason back then.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-beers-Binge-drinkers-targeted-1-50-levy.html

So, that obviously didn't work otherwise they wouldn't need to come up with the same excuse to raise more money.

 

I don't believe this small increase will make any difference whatsoever.

I do believe that the government want's desperately to be SEEN to be doing something to curtail the abuse of alcohol.

 

Is this actually a rise in tax?
I was under the impression it was a minimum price per unit.
If so, who gets the extra cash?

I dont think 40p would have made much difference to most of us, but 45p is getting close.

I do agree, how much an establishment wants to sell alcohol for is nothing to do with the government and as such is government meddling that will achieve absolutely nothing as regards the consumption.

What happened to the old days when a landlord refused to serve you if you were drunk?
Nowdays the clubs invite you in just to get you totally tanked up and then throw you out.

Make the clubs responsible, and shut down the ones that create the most drunks.
Ah, but then we mustn't affect the nightime economy, must we.