The decision by Labour, revealed in DARK LOCHNAGAR four weeks ago, means that the party will now join with Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to vote down the minority Scottish government’s bid to introduce the controversial measure, aimed at curbing supermarket sales of drinks such as cheap lager and cider. However, Labour’s move brought condemnation from the British Medical Association in Scotland which said it was “confounded” by the party’s attitude. Alcohol Focus Scotland, the campaigning group, said the rejection by Labour of minimum pricing was “a major blow which could set back attempts to make a positive change to Scotland’s drinking culture”.
Stephen House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, also implicitly attacked Labour, saying that introducing a minimum price for alcohol could play a substantial role in driving down crime and violence across Scotland and was the right thing to do. Mr House said: “Pricing does have an impact on consumption. The past few years have seen more and more people buy their alcohol from supermarkets and off licences. The reason for this is quite clear — it is cheaper. “My officers see the devastation caused by cheap, strong alcohol each and every day. They see people left shattered by violence, towns and cities blighted by fear and young people making foolish, drink-fuelled choices that will change their lives forever. Our jails, prisons and hospital wards are testament to this and it is time for it to change".
I'VE GOT A SIMPLE SOLUTION. Ban Supermarkets from selling booze and bring back the old offi's. No-one's trying to stop the guy who likes a few cans or a bottle of wine or even a wee voddy now and again.
After all, THERE WAS ALWAYS CHANGE AT AGNEWS!
15 comments:
Scottish Labour have clearly been influenced by the poll on Alcohol Focus Scotlands own website in which 10,000 of the great British Public ( remember us ? ) voted 94% Against price rigging, pity they took it down and disappeared it.
( DL, I know that our views diverge on this and will not use this post to expand on that further ).
No, this is not the way. All those hooligans fired up on booze ... the one thing they have in common, apart from a skinful, is shoes. Increase the price of shoes: then you'll see the difference, all right! How could they go out for their bottles of white cider with no shoes to their feet, eh?
Banned as you say our views are different as we are looking at the problem from different experiences. I can appreciate your views about the price as at one stage I would have had the same views.
Klaram, would you liie to expand on that a wee bit?
The SNP are wrong on this one. Dearer booze will only affect the poor. God knows life is miserable enough already so if people can't escape reality for a time with cheap booze then they will find something else. Sniff gas or buy ethanol like in Russia etc or make their own.
They could stop all the drink fuelled violence etc if they grew a pair and brought in proper sentences for people overindulging and causing trouble. But that will never happen. Binge drinkers will cost more in the short term for healthcare but they will die off sooner so they should be allowed to drink themselves to death. It will save a fortune later on in residential care / dementia care etc.
Our booze is the most expensive in Europe yet we seem to be the only country having so much trouble. This is because we give drunks lifts home and give short sentences to people who pull out girls eyes, set fire to them and murder children when high on drink or drugs
I would ignore alcohol focus as they are what's called a "fake charity". To qualify for this status the charity must claim to be independent but get most of it's funding from government and backs up governmant policy in order to ensure further funding.
The BMA are part of the establishment and can't be trusted so I would ignore them aswell.
Nicola said on QT last night that a University had found that 40p a unit would cause a reduction in deaths by 20%. Like her views on global warming being man made she's in fantasy land with this aswell.
SNP hates, you obviously have srtong opinions on this, so I'm not going to try and change them. I can only say that from my point as a previous heavy drinker for 30 odd years, I am now coming to the point of view that I shouldn't have done it as my health has suffered and I'm only 55. Both my parents were middle class heavy drinkers as well so it was accepted in my family that drink was acceptable. I don't accept the neds excuse that they were pished, that is no excuse. Being able to get out of your box on cheap drink and either committing crime or worse losing all sense of resposibility happens far too often and while I don't grudge anyone doing that, the problem is that some people can't handle large amounts of drink. When drink is cheap they are able to abject their responsibilities on a regular basis. I was in Morrisons yesterday and they had 3 cases of lager for £18. Christ you can't buy flavoured water for that. Our drink mis no longer the dearest in Europe. A bottle of whisky is just as dear in for instance Spain, which used to be cheap as it is here, particularly with the exchange rate. It used to be worthwhile for people in Scotland to hire a van and go to the continent and load up with booze. Doesn't happen now. Problem in pubs and clubs which wouldn't be affected by minimum pricing is that 80% of people are tanked up before they go out and nobody can say that if they were sober and saw the clubs and pubs coming out that drink was a good idea. Anyway I'm ranting on and I know that's not what you want to hear.
Well Labour has never paid any attention to any kind of expert on anything when looking at policy.
It's ok for them I suppose, living in the weird world that MPs live in, detached from ordinary people, they probably never have to put up with drunks staggering about on the street outside their houses, shouting obscenities, nor to they have to pick their way over vomit and piss as they nip to the shops for rolls in the morning. I expects their servants do that.
Until they have to live in the same world as we do they will never see how life really is.
Sad.
tris
I hate Labour but they all came from the same streets as we did so they did see the state we're in and have done nothing about it for decades.
DL
The price of drink in Europe has only recently reached our prices so it's not really relevant to the decades of indulgence by Scots.
I'm sorry about your drink problems but what you seem to be asking for is a nanny state. Are we really that pathetic that we can't take responsibility for our own actions ? If they made chocolate and cakes free would we all eat until we died ?
Increasing drink prices is the easy way out for the SNP if they think it will reduce drinking.
Tougher measures would be increased sentences if you step out of line.
I worked in the Gulf where alcohol was totally banned and a bottle of bootleg whisky was £60. People were casevaced home with liver failure. Stomach and other drink related problems were the norm. This is because if people want drink and it's too dear or not available then they will make their own. There will be no control over production and no testing for safety.
It's an exact mirror with the cannabis issue. It's made illegal so it makes vast profits for Chinese gangs and there's no control over quality. Superpowerful skunk and people trafficking is the end result. Oh and when they get sentenced they get a year in the slammer then they're back doing it again.
I've always voted SNP but would never consider them in future. They are a nanny state party , fully committed to the EU, totally committed to the global warming scam, want to control all of our lives for our own good. Yet they won't bring in proper sentences for alcohol fuelled violence. They keep talking about improving hospitals yet they haven't the ability to bang heads together at Ninewells or Aberdeen hospital to get them cleaned up or even scare the managers in any way to get a grip.
Oh and of course they bend over backwards to cosy up to the religion of peace and want more and more immigrants into the country.
oops I'm droning on aswell now.
SNP hates:
I think they have short memories. It's easy to forget Easterhouse when you live in Belgravia...
Tris, they do forget of that I am sure. Whether it is the nanny state or not, Scotland has a drink problem they don't have in other countries.
SNP Hates.
I have taken resposibility for my drink problem, I no longer drink. I am able to do that because I have a strong personality and willpower, unfortunatley not everyone with my problem has that, as is obvious by the number of people who die from drink related illnesses. The problem with strong cheap drink and I am talking alcopops and cider here is that it is the young who drink it. In my day it was Lanliq and special brew. It sets them involantarily on the road to drinking to much. Guys or women
like yourself, have jobs and have reached a status in life where you would no more drink White Lighting than drink a stranger's piss. In other words it doesn't affect you. Do you think they would be paying £60 a bottle for booze in the Gulf if they were not addicted to it? You are therefore defeating your own arguement.
As for voting for the SNP, who else are you going to vote for? I vote for the SNP with purely one purpose in mind to get independence. After that I might continue voting for them or I might vote for someone else it depends what their policies are. If there was another party advocating independence I might vote fot them I do however think that as a MINORITY Government which we've never had in this country, the SNP are doing OK. You must just be unlucky with Hospitals as Ayrshire and Arran are excellent and believe me I've spent some time in them over the last few years for various wee problems. I don't believe in authoritarian Governments either or being in the EC, but I would hope that once we have independence and control of our own economy and natural resources that the arguement would be able to be made to follow the Norwegian model. Fuck, here's me ranting again!
DL,
Bravo Zulu, it's the year of my 40th and by feck have I been putting it away this month - 3 litres of Malt in 2 weeks, 7 bottles of red, 1 white, 2 glasses of port and 4 pints of 80-/ last nicht.
I can take it or leave it and don't drink daily, have been teetotal on many occasions, 9 months was my last stint in a place hot an sandy!
It's not big or clever and we need to do something about it, £13 for a litre of Laphroaig - bad news, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda all have big discounts on malt. (I don't drink blended - too sweet and I'd drink mair!).
Time to sober up and dry out in time to enjoy Hogmany.
Hic!
CD
DL
I suppose there's no other option than the SNP if I want independence.
Plus the other parties will keep their more outlandish nanny state policies in check.
So ok I'll give them another chance.
I bought the £60 bottle of whisky because I could and I wanted a wee treat for Hogmany. I didn't drink it all myself !
Daisy, good. Christ I used to put that away in a week, aye and maybe another litre of spirits as well. Just watch it though, I thought I was in control when I was 40. That's all I'll say.
SNP hates, sorry your comment inferred that it was other people bying it and getting liver problems. Fuck, I wasn't critcising your drinking habits, I of all people have no right to do that. I once went to an AA meeting. Once was enough, fucking hell, boring or what. You wouldn't have wanted to go out for a pint with any of them. But I suppose different people deal with it different ways. I'm glad I saved your vote for the SNP. That's made my day, genuinely.
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