Surely it can only be spite and class prejudice that is driving the government proposals to increase the cost of alcohol to prohibitive levels. The government wishes to almost double the price of some alcoholic drinks to curb binge drinkers.
David Cameron of whom it has been suggested, was in his younger days, familiar with excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and the behaviour of the infamous "Bullingdon Club", would not have had his drinking habits modified by expensive booze since clearly he's come from a well healed background.
The target of these proposals, is us the masses, the majority of whom have no alcohol problem and of course those who do have a drink problem, will do what they have to.
Like all politicians, the Conservatives adopt a patronising attitude, to the electorate that they know best, or perhaps they will be getting a big kick back from the brewers and supermarkets, who look to be about to receive windfall profits.
Maybe its an attempt to drive people into pubs, since much reference has been made to pre-loading (the practice or drinking cheap booze before going to the pub), I for one object to paying the same for a pint in a pub as I would for four from the supermarket.
I started drinking in my teens and would often do so responsibly with my fellow under age associates, in the pubs of Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate, rarely having problems getting served and I note that some of those businesses have done well, so am inclined to think, little has changed since my day.
Still for normal people like me who go to work, have passed the stage of weekend binge drinking, the increase in booze, will be just a spiteful act of repressive class prejudice, from multi millionaires who run the Conservative party.
Instead of class bigotry, it would be sensible if other measures were taken, such as taxing local pubs and off licenses on the cost of dealing with drunks in the health service, or making drunks pay a fine when they show up at hospital.
Still every cloud has a silver lining, so on the plus side, it will be drinks all round for local entrepreneurs such as smugglers, along with drug dealers, who will probably see an upsurge in business, along with cross channel ferries who will also benefit, as will traders in France as Brits are once again forced to buy their booze abroad, and spend time in the unique uglyness of Calais.
Personally I cannot think of anything more civilised than having a drink at home with the family, and the availability of cheap booze has encouraged a lot of people, particularly men to spend hours at home rather than some pub which if anything are a malign influence many families.
Anyhoo if Liberal Democrats in the coalition go big, on this unnecessary bit of class warfare it will be unlikely that I will be renewing membership, these measures will only effect middle and low income earners, David Cameron and those of his ilk, will have continue to have the personal liberty to drink with no constraint, unlike most of us.
I very much doubt this will affect the booze up's after full councils or lunch time tipple at KCC ...or were they made to reduce these ?
ReplyDeleteAll parties participate in these tax payer paid jollies !
"Anyhoo if Liberal Democrats in the coalition go big, on this unnecessary bit of class warfare it will be unlikely that I will be renewing membership"
ReplyDeleteWow, this is what makes you turn your back on the Lib Dems? Not the U-turn on VAT, nor the about turn on student fees, nor their inability to stop the privitatsion of the NHS.
The above three are all fine... but the 'class warfare' on minimum alcohol price is the thing which makes you tear up your membership card. Very interesting! ;-)
This is a jolly good move by the government in that it will save billions of OUR money being wasted by the NHS every year treating the lower orders who turn up, drunk and bleeding, in emergency rooms up and down the country. Once the NHS is fully privatised, we can then charge these oiks for their disorderly conduct.
ReplyDeleteIt may also cause the workshy dole scroungers to get one of the many jobs on offer locally in order to fund their disgusting habits, and that includes smoking.
However, it will cause plenty of pubs to go under, excepting the large chain pubs, and we will be relieved of the sight of the great unwashed standing outside tatty old boozers, creating an eyesore.
I do balk at the thought of the government interfering in our lives, they should get out of the way of entrepreneurs who might make a killing out of selling cheap beer to the masses. There again, this is something our supermarkets are already doing.
What U turn on VAT,
ReplyDeleteStudent fees (labours creation)
Privatisation of NHS I thought it already was privatised with so many fat cats in non jobs on a hundred grand
I we have to draw the line somewhere and this issue is class specific for the reasons I've given
I wish it were it true. I can honestly say in ime as a Thanet Councillor I have not a single alcholic drink paid for by the council or any of its officers.
ReplyDeletePS support Equal Marriage
Great idea... and as for making pubs go under, it will actually help them. Most (all?) drinks in pubs are already above the rate being set; however it WILL effect supermarkets.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair Ian I don't think I'd risk a homosexual getting drunk.
ReplyDeleteWhich ever way you look at it we are all be had over left right and centre
ReplyDeleteFor those who really want to know how and why !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7F4_vKb9rA
Outwith the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, name me some right leaning mainstream media. It's not so long ago that local bloggers were accusing Rebecca Smith,doyen of local Tory family, of leaning leftward in an attempt to distance herself from her upbringing. And you really must be the only person in the Universe who thinks the BBC is right wing.
ReplyDeleteTuition fees might be a Labour creation but your Party campaigned at the last elections against rises. Your leader publicly signed the pledge.
That said, prohibition didn't work in USA and it won't work here.
Outwith the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph, name me some right leaning mainstream media. It's not so long ago that local bloggers were accusing Rebecca Smith,doyen of local Tory family, of leaning leftward in an attempt to distance herself from her upbringing. And you really must be the only person in the Universe who thinks the BBC is right wing.
ReplyDeleteTuition fees might be a Labour creation but your Party campaigned at the last elections against rises. Your leader publicly signed the pledge.
That said, prohibition didn't work in USA and it won't work here.
I agree Tony, it's all about the money. The old bait and switch routine; get 'em hooked then raise the price.
ReplyDeleteThe Rockefellers were big players in supplying illicit booze during the prohibition. When it was over, they needed something else so they made recreational drugs illegal, and created a new 'problem' to be milked.
In much of Western Europe the booze costs pennies and the youth hardly touch the stuff, so the bingeing in the UK must be down to something other than price.
Perhaps it is a form of (temporary) relief from the effects of other toxins we Brits enjoy so much of, such as mercury fillings, mercury and aluminium adjuvants in the vaccines, fluoride in brick tea, radioactive tobacco products, red lead in cheapo milk.
The quality of British booze, too, leaves a lot to be desired, because the big guys cut corners to increase profits, so maybe nipping across the channel is the best bet, the tobacco there is cleaner too.
Tim Clark:
ReplyDeleteTory supporting "newspapers": Daily Telegraph; Daily Mail, Daily Express; Daily Star; The Sun; The Times and Financial Times.
Lib Dem supporting: The Independent and The Guardian.
Labour supporting: Daily Mirror.
(as of last general election).
As for the political bias of the BBC: there's plenty of right leaning and left leaning content in such a large media organisation but it's output is overall moderate. You'd have to be on the far-right to think that it is in anyway entirely left leaning and on the far left to think it is wholly right wing.
Tony was referring to BBC Kent by the way.
British people are generally more stupid 10:13. Stupid, lazy & selfish.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree 10.41, but also unwitting victims of a deliberate dumbing down campaign and toxic bombardment more severe than our mainland european neighbours.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget we were still driving on leaded petrol until 2000, even now there is more sulphur in the fuel here than across the briny.
They get away with it because of our island isolation, it then becomes a downward spiral, which is what they want.
Interesting to note that some of the biggest critics of the budget are the so called right wing press led by the Daily Mail. Something the Mirror would never do to a Labour chancellor however bad.
ReplyDeleteTom, the reason the Daily Mail thought the budget was a stinker is that it was a LibDem budget.
ReplyDeleteWhatever, I still maintain you would never get the Mirror criticising a Labour budget, however bad. That said, the Mail's main criticism seems to be of the so called Granny Tax, not that it is not right wing enough.
ReplyDeleteTom
ReplyDeleteThis is a LibDem view of the so-called Granny Tax.
http://www.libdemvoice.org/liblink-tim-leunig-granny-tax-does-not-go-far-enough-27764.html
Defend that, Mr Flaig.
And Andrew Lansley's views on minimum pricing three months ago.
ReplyDelete“I don’t like a minimum price, we are acting against below cost selling. My problem with a minimum price, well I have two problems. One is it’s regressive, so there are perfectly normal families who just don’t happen to have much money who like to buy cheap beer or cheap wine. Should they be prevented? No, I don’t think so and if you put in a minimum price, one of the journalists calculated that if you set it at 50p a unit it would add £600 million to the profits of retailers and drinks manufacturers which doesn’t seem to me to be the right thing to do in these circumstances.” So given that this was a LibDem Budget, maybe you ought to join the Tories Tony.