The Health Alcohol Alliance wants to see a rise in alcohol tax.

I'm a Conservative, but on some aspects of life, usually to to with adults making their own decisions, I'm a bit of a Libertarian. When I read today that the Health Alcohol Alliance wants to see a rise in alcohol tax, my blood started to simmer. They are proposing a whole raft of policies that are not about adults making choices, but are all about forcing adults to behave as they see fit. They are using shock statistics like: 13 children are admitted to hospital every day as a result of Britain's growing alcohol misuse, and: the number of alcohol-related deaths has more than doubled from 4,144 in 1991 to 8,386 in 2005.

While those figures are indeed shocking, I don't see increasing tax and reducing the easy availability of alcohol as the correct solution. Restricting alcohol to adults disgusts me to be quite honest and it smacks of more interference from the nanny state. Raising tax will make not one blind bit of difference, I've been a bit of a drinker in the past and I can guarantee that raising the price of a pint of beer by 10% will have absolutely zero effect. Do they honestly believe that raising the cost of a pint from £2.50 to £2.75 will cut all alcohol-related deaths by between 10% and 30%? A 10% increase in tax will mean that it will cost you £27.50 to get a skin full instead of £25. Big wow. They are obviously living in cloud cuckoo land.

If the government want to make a difference they should get even tougher on anyone that sells alcohol to the under 18's. This should be combined with education and increasing the support for those that have been identified as having a clinical condition. The vast majority of people in this country drink sociably, but rather than tackle the problem where it exists, we see those who think they know better taking the easy option by trying to tax the rest of us into submission.

If kids are drinking too much, then the law is not being implemented correctly. If the number of drink related deaths are increasing, then those people are not getting the support they need. It is these problems that need to be sorted out. So until you do that - please leave the rest of us alone.

Please click on the picture to read the Beer Prayer.

Tesco are accused of selling harmful alcohol.

I can only wonder which planet these interfering fools live on when they are not sticking their unwanted noses into our private business:

John Denham, Chairman of the Commons home affairs committee, has criticised Tesco for sending promotional coupons to people who buy alcohol from their stores. Mr Denham said: "I don't quite see why Tesco should be trying to raise the consumption of high fat products, or high fat and salt or high alcohol products because that is what somebody is already buying. Where does the level of responsibility beyond selling as much as you can of whatever harmful product it is the consumer is buying stop?"

Mr Denham, Tesco are promoting products that they believe their customers want to buy. The significant part of the last sentence was "customers want to buy". Stores like Tesco have bent over backwards to cover their products in warning labels telling us what is, or even could be contained in said products. Now you object to them advertising or promoting their wares? This is not rat poison we are talking about, it is alcohol. Contrary to what the lifestyle fascist in government are trying to tell us, alcohol is not harmful. Alcohol is enjoyed by millions of people in this country in a safe and very sociable way.

This is all part of the governments new alcohol strategy targeting older people who drink at home. When is this interference going to stop? How many more of our liberties are going to be taken away from us? If I want to smoke I will, if I want to drink I will, and if I want to eat food with salt in it because I believe it tastes better, I will. These are my choices, stupid or not. My God, before long we will all wear uniforms, call each other comrade and drive (if you are a senior member of the party) around in identical (electronically tracked) cars.

Start planning your escape routes now.

Alcoholic drink unit warning labels - An idiot's guide to getting drunk

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, I'm afraid the government's idea to add warning labels to alcoholic drinks, to give an indication of the number of units of alcohol they may contain is very poor to say the least. Having been a bit of a drinker in the past (16 year in the Navy) I know a thing or two about buying alcohol, and what I know is this: a lot of people in this country buy alcohol based on its alcohol content, i.e the more the better. I've got more than a sneaking suspicion that these labels will only make it easier to identify the strongest drinks. After all, the main purpose of buying alcohol in many people's eyes (the people this foolishness is aimed at) is to get drunk as fast and as cheaply as possible.

Fair enough add labels that warn against excessive drinking and consumption while pregnant, but depicting the alcoholic content in an easy to follow points system will only encourage abuse. Old habits die hard and I still find myself looking at the alcoholic content of a drink when I'm shopping. The new points system will make this a lot easier. This initiative is part of a voluntary agreement with the drinks industry. I bet it is, I also bet they are rubbing their hands together in anticipation. I predict (and I could be wrong) that drinks depicting the highest number of units of alcohol on their bottles will become the most popular with drinkers and best sellers for the drinks industry.

People that drink sensibly don't need warning labels. People that don't drink sensibly will either ignore them or (more likely) use them as an idiots guide to getting drunk.

Raise the drinking age to 21 or drop it to 12?

Andy McIntyre has submitted an E-Petition asking the PM to lower the drinking age in the UK to 12.

This what Andy has to say:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Lower the legal drinking age to 12.

Bring the UK into line with most of the continent. Starting people earlier on alcohol will make it less of an attraction to the middle-to-late teens, hopefully reducing the anti-social binge drinking we have now. Drunk 12 year olds are less likely to cause bother then drunk 18 year olds.

You can sign the E-Petition by clicking HERE

What do you think?

VOTE: Should the legal drinking age be raised to 21?

The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.
The Public Policy Research (PPR), the journal of the IPPR think-tank, says it is time to practice "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age. Others say Britain should consider making the legal drinking age 21.

Jasper Gerard, a columnist in the PPR says: "When it comes to booze, society seems to have lost its senses." If the drinking age is raised he believes: "It is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now."

Mr Gerard has also proposed that if the drinking age is not raised, then 18-year-olds should carry smart cards to record how much they have drunk each night, with a legal limit of three units of alcohol.

A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: "There is a sense that the regulatory landscape is lopsided. Licensing reform, resistance to a debate on taxation, the cancellation of the Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaigns which raised the profile of underage drinking issues - all happening at a time when alcohol-related harm is rising - seem to suggest the government is more concerned about making sure the drinks industry operates with as little interference as possible than with seriously grasping the nettle."

David Poley, chief executive of the Portman Group, said: "What we really need to do is change the drinking culture through education rather than making drinking a social taboo by raising the legal drinking age."

A government spokesman said: "The majority of people drink sensibly and responsibly and the government has no plans to raise the minimum drinking age. Instead, we are using a combination of effective education and tough enforcement to change the behaviour of the minority that don't."

The number of under-18s taken to hospital with alcohol related diseases and injuries rose in 2005-2006 to 8,299, a jump of 40% on figures three years ago. Alcohol Concern found in 2005 that more than one in five 11-year-olds admitted to drinking. By the age of 12, drinkers start to outnumber non-drinkers.

Q. Should the legal drinking age be raised to 21?

Click: HERE to view the results.

(The results are archived by the British Library)

Should the legal drinking age be raised to 21?

The UK has one of the worst problems in Europe with a fifth of children aged 11 to 15 drinking at least once a week.
The Public Policy Research (PPR), the journal of the IPPR think-tank, says it is time to practice "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age. Others say Britain should consider making the legal drinking age 21.

The government said there were already tough measures in place.

I think raising the legal drinking age to 21 is a step too far and smacks of the Nanny State.
However I do believe that the current drinking law is open to abuse by teenagers.
The problem we have with underage drinking is largely due to the 18-20 age group buying drink for their underage friends. I feel a good compromise would be to raise the age at which alcohol can be purchased in shops and off licences to 21. There’s a good chance that if you are 21 or older you will be less likely to buy alcohol for those underage. The age limit would remain at 18 in pubs, clubs and restaurants where regulation is already in place.

Time children please?

Local authority tests carried out by the Liberal Democrats found 23% of pubs, bars and off-licences in England and Wales are selling alcohol to underage drinkers.

Between 2004 and 2005 there were 11,452 tests in which under-age people were sent into pubs, bars and off-licences to make purchases. Of those 11,452 tests, 2,588 resulted in purchases by the under 18s.

Liberal Democrat local government spokesman Andrew Stunell the Liberal Democrat local government spokesman said: "It is shocking that under-age children can so easily buy alcohol. "As well as being illegal, it is grossly irresponsible for pubs and shops to sell alcohol to under-age young people. "Teenagers drinking illegally bought alcohol often take part in anti-social behaviour, causing misery for many people in their community."

There were 7,500 under 18s treated for conditions like alcohol poisoning in 2004-5, a rise of 20% compared to the period 1999-2000.

The underage drink problem is increased by minors getting over 18s to buy alcohol for them. The purchasers of the alcohol tend to be only 18 or 19, supplying the drink to gain esteem amongst a younger group.


Q. Should the age limit for purchasing alcohol in shops and off-licences be increased to 21?

To see the results go to:

http://dailyreferendum.co.uk/