gnvqsos Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 Contrary to popular myth, alcohol consumption has steadily decreased since 2002. Yes, I was surprised too, but 'men and women of all ages are slowly curbing their excesses and drinking in moderation, according to the annual survey from the Office for National Statistics, which covers England, Scotland and Wales. It suggests that heavy drinking is falling, abstinence is rising, and young people are leading the drive towards healthier drinking. The decrease among some groups even pre-dates 2002, with men aged 16-24 drinking 26 units a week on average in 1999 and just 15 units a week in 2009, according to the ONS figures.' Here's the full story from the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12397254 The average may have dropped as in an ageing population the growing group over 65 are drinking low amounts .In addition an expansion of ethnic minorities who abstain will suppress the average or mean.My guess that the average white Yorkshireman/lass in their late teens and 20s will be drinking more than people did in 2001-the number of plumpsters of both sexes seen in pubs seems to confirm this regrettable trend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted February 17, 2011 Share Posted February 17, 2011 price of alcohol in the UK is cheap. 440ml X 12 of Stella Artois you can pick up in Tesco for 6 pounds 87 pence. That's 80 pence a liter for something that is, or at least was once, supposed to be like this premium brand. Remember their celebrated advertising slogan REASURRINGLY EXPENSIVE? Well they ditched that. Now it's reassuringly cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Bar the way that I cut it. Hardly any labour is needed to provide a gallon of beer each a day for all. We could drink Litres for a penny (a penny relative to working class wages). The cost of labour to make it doesn't alter that it's cheaper today than it used to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 How do you know that the consumption of alcohol in the UK is falling? The amount of alcohol sold in shops, off-licences, pubs, clubs and bars may be falling, but then again, Brits overseas haven't lost their reputaion as lager louts and cross-channel ferries are still doing a pretty good trade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 The amount bought abroad for immediate consumption or to bring back must be a minuscule fraction of the total consumed and probably doesn't fluctuate massively, so tracking domestic sales will be sufficient to observe trends in the amount being drunk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Bar the way that I cut it. Hardly any labour is needed to provide a gallon of beer each a day for all. We could drink Litres for a penny (a penny relative to working class wages). Even if we take your bizarre interpretation of the word "price" to mean "human work hours expended in the production of", the price of alcohol has probably plummeted even further than if you use the more traditional, commonly understood definition. Most modern breweries, wineries and distilleries use a fraction of the workforce they did 100 years ago, and even 50 years ago thanks to automation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 His complaint is that the cost of it has gone down by (for example) 10 times, but the relative cost of purchase has only fallen (for example again) by 5 times. He somehow tries to make this mean that the relative cost isn't 5 times lower than it used to be, but has actually doubled... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I knew a gentleman who did 3 years for smuggling booze and cigarettes. He wasn't the first one I'd met. - I'd met another who was caught with a Transit full. I asked this person how much he'd brought in. Was it a van load? 'Be serious, Rupert! - You know who I am!' (and I did) 'It was 32 tons'. Not enough to supply the whole country, but he went down for the truckload he was caught with. - Not the ones he wasn't caught with. I wonder whether the original article (the one which triggered this thread) considered total alcohol sales or sales on licensed premises? From that original article: "There is a received (sic) [perceived?] wisdom that we must be drinking more," says Neil Williams of the British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA). Its own figures, which are based on sales and not self-reporting, suggest alcohol sales peaked in 2004 and have fallen by 13% since then." The Brtish Beer and Pubs Association. Are the supermarkets members of that association? How have supermarket sales changed during the period? Is the article talking about total sales, or was it biased towards sales in pubs? I've no doubt that societal changes (number of non-drinkers entering the country and number of drinkers - even moderate drinkers - leaving will have had an effect, but the article does note that notwithstanding the reduction in (Pub?) sales, there has been an increase in the number of people suffering from alcohol-related illnesses. "These days most employers are anti-drink. The six o'clock swill has gone in most places, apart from London," he says. Cheap booze Meanwhile, consumer forces were also at work to change our drinking habits throughout the last decade. Pubs were closing down, duty on beer was rising, and sales of cheap supermarket wine were rocketing. "There are still 10 million people drinking above the government's recommended level. And 1.6 million dependent drinkers. These are the frequent flyers into hospital, and they are not changing their drinking habits," '...hospital admissions from alcohol continue to rise.' Those extracts from the article (link in the OP) suggest that perhaps drinking habits may have changed more than the amount consumed. The article says: "...There are still 10 million people drinking above the government's recommended level. And 1.6 million dependent drinkers..." That's not the same as 'There are 1.6 million alcoholics', because there are a number of people who know that they are alcoholics and do not drink and there are a number of people who have never drunk alcohol but would find that they are alcoholics were they ever to drink. Alcoholism is a disease and according to the late Prof. Victor Wynne it's a disease with both psychiatric and metabolic elements and - because it is a metabolic ailment - it's genetically based. (He actually said to me 'Don't be bloody stupid, Rupert' before he said that when I asked him about the disease. ) At least 4 genes have been identified as being a factor in alcoholism. There is no such thing as 'a recovering alcoholic'- any more than there is a 'recovering peanut allergy sufferer'. Increasing taxes on booze won't stop people from drinking it. It might encourage them to drink cheaper alcohol (but your liver can't tell the difference between 1787 Cateau Lafite, Hirondelle, English Lager, Augustiner Weißbier, Pinot Grogio or Pinot More [a wine very popular with old farts ] It's all just another metabolic problem to handle.) If somebody who wants booze can't afford expensive booze, (s)he will buy cheap booze. - Or make it him/herself. I'm sceptical about any 'News item' which suggests that alcohol consumption is reducing. Societal reductions (caused largely by the influx of non-drinkers) I can accept, but (AFAIK) there is no significant reduction in alcohol consumption in the drinking population. I hope I'm wrong ... But I doubt it. BTW (somewhat off topic) Just because they don't drink doesn't mean that the Asian immigrant population is healthier. Look at the figures for type ll Diabetes amongst Asian children. - That's a potentially huge problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 ...Most modern breweries, wineries and distilleries use a fraction of the workforce they did 100 years ago, and even 50 years ago thanks to automation. Most modern breweries produce equine urine. (Or the chemical equivalent.) Bugger 'Automation' I'll stick with Reinheitsgebot, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucifer Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 God I now have to drink a lot more to maintain the Status Quo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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