Government doesn't support minimum pricing for alcohol.

[Danny_Boy]

Another alternative is to put minimum prices on the types of booze people tend to binge on, such as white cider, special brew and stella. At the same time reduce the price of quality drinks such as real ale and fine wines. This would not only reduce binger drinking but change drinking habits and at the same time would only persecute irresponsible drinkers, not the majority.

 

The binge drinkers and alcoholics will drink whatever is the cheapest just to get there alcohol fix. So in principle I agree the majority should not have to suffer because of the minority but in your examply the problem drinkers would just move onto the same drinks as the normal or even healthy drinkers.

 

Best thing you can do is sort out the Monopoly the likes of Enterprise and Punch have got on the pub industry bring taxes and prices to more reasonable levels and increase the fines levied of drunken louts and people that decide they want to fight after having a skinfull.

[chem1st]

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has suggested minimum pricing as a way of reducing the harm from excess drinking.

 

The coalition government agrees that alcohol misuse is a problem, but does not support a minimum price

 

Probably because they aren't idiots..

 

They already have one anyhow, they increase it every year. If they raise it too much they lose out to homebrewing.

[beer]

Another alternative is to put minimum prices on the types of booze people tend to binge on, such as white cider, special brew and stella. At the same time reduce the price of quality drinks such as real ale and fine wines. This would not only reduce binge drinking but change drinking habits and at the same time would only persecute irresponsible drinkers, not the majority.

 

What we need is the Reinheitsgebot and a similar ruling that cider is made from 100% apples and not just one apple core mixed with 30 tonnes of sugar beet.

 

The special low rate of duty on cider was supposed to prop up craft cider makers. Instead it led to a spate of cheap crap labeled as cider for tax purposes but bearing no resemblance to cider as it had been previously recognised.