Price of drink

[Escapee]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4147058.stm

Will this have any affect or is the guy an idiot?

I fail to see how increasing the price of alcohol to 3 times the price will affect binge drinkers. the binge drinkers will go out less often and the moderate drinker is the one that will suffer.

I guess it will be cheaper to go out and buy illegal hard drugs.

[Nidge]

Originally Posted by Escapee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4147058.stm

Will this have any affect or is the guy an idiot?

I fail to see how increasing the price of alcohol to 3 times the price will affect binge drinkers. the binge drinkers will go out less often and the moderate drinker is the one that will suffer.

I guess it will be cheaper to go out and buy illegal hard drugs.

I've been saying that for the last year, I got lambasted on here a few months ago for saying the same thing. Take Norway for instance, a pint of beer is over £5, they have no trouble over there because it's to expensive to go out. They are after stopping the binge drinking, they tried to stop it in the early 90's when they gave the 12 hour opening the go ahead the Government said it will stopp all the binge drinking, did it work??? NOPE. All they are doing now is giving the punter an extra hour to get lashed even more thus creating more trouble at a later time.


Here is the link.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...770#post322770

[Minbu]

Same old story. The authorities are unable to control the problem so they place a blanket ban for everyone.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Nidge

I've been saying that for the last year, I got lambasted on here a few months ago for saying the same thing. Take Norway for instance, a pint of beer is over £5, they have no trouble over there because it's to expensive to go out. They are after stopping the binge drinking, they tried to stop it in the early 90's when they gave the 12 hour opening the go ahead the Government said it will stopp all the binge drinking, did it work??? NOPE. All they are doing now is giving the punter an extra hour to get lashed even more thus creating more trouble at a later time.


Here is the link.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...770#post322770

I think of it the other way around, my local like most I guess can hardly afford to open Monday-Thursday. Surely increasing the cost of beer three times will only put extra money in the governments pockets or close pubs.

I wonder if the government would be happy for the pubs to charge 3 times the price and keep the profit instead of it going to the government in tax.... No I dont suppose they would.

I go out once a week on a friday and sometimes on a saturday, my local never has any trouble so why should we be paying more. Surely the answer is to increase fines/sentences for alcohol fuelled violence, that way the honest drinker who goes out to socialise is not being penalised.

I guess that wont raise as much revenue though.

Raisning prices will probably increase poverty in families where the husband goes out boozing away the housekeeping money anyway!

[Tuftus]

Hmmm, clearly not a drinker himself then.

All that will do is drive people to buy more cans and get canned at home before going out.

[Flubflow]

How about biometric chip'n'pin national alcohol ration card?
Booze would only be served from automatic dispensers in pubs and the output is controlled by the police and your ration card. Start off with a reasonable daily ration and then if you break the law whilst under the influence then your ration is automatically reduced or stopped for a certain amount of time.

I'll get me coat.

[Nidge]

I like a drink as much as the next guy but he's right in what he says, town centres are becoming no go zone's after 10pm. The binge drinking culture has got out of hand the last few years.

[fireman328]

Originally Posted by Tuftus

Hmmm, clearly not a drinker himself then.

All that will do is drive people to buy more cans and get canned at home before going out.

I dont think that is quite what was meant, I think the proposal was that all alcohol should be increased in price including off sales.

[Rob]

I doubt that price increases would be the fair way to address this. Bear in mind that the increasing problem of binge drinking is also links to sliding standards of punishment (most of the time effectively a slap on the wrist - you've only got to watch the cop on patrol type programs to see that), and lack of self discipline and morals. However why should the majority have to suffer because of the minority.

Where controls and obligations should be tightened is the drink outlets themselves. They already have a duty not to serve people that are drunk. That needs to be enforced.

Raising the price of booze will just increase the problems of smuggling from booze cruises.

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by Nidge

I like a drink as much as the next guy but he's right in what he says, town centres are becoming no go zone's after 10pm. The binge drinking culture has got out of hand the last few years.

But this proposal doesn't address the cause of the problem in my opinion. It's an attempt at a deterrent which also has the added benefit of raising loadsa ca$h for HM Govt.

There used to be a problem with drink driving in this country not veyr many years ago. The penalties for being caught whilst DUI were increased, and people realised that it just wasn't worth taking the risk any more. Paying for a taxi is a much better option than losing your licence (unless you're a copper and you can get off scot-free ). A similar level of punishment should be applied to those arrested on alcohol-related charges.

Anyway, I've got absolutely no problem with binge drinkers. They're (mostly) all adults, so if they choose to mess up their bodies by excessive drinking, then that's fine by me. I do have a problem however with violent drunks, whether they be binge drinkers or not. It's these people that we (both society itself and the police force/judicial system) should be concentrating on. Make them feel as stigmatised as drink drivers are today, and then I'll be happy.

[homealone]

Originally Posted by Rob C

I doubt that price increases would be the fair way to address this. Bear in mind that the increasing problem of binge drinking is also links to sliding standards of punishment (most of the time effectively a slap on the wrist - you've only got to watch the cop on patrol type programs to see that), and lack of self discipline and morals. However why should the majority have to suffer because of the minority.

Where controls and obligations should be tightened is the drink outlets themselves. They already have a duty not to serve people that are drunk. That needs to be enforced.

Raising the price of booze will just increase the problems of smuggling from booze cruises.

and home brewing

[Shaun]

No government would ever treble the price of alcoholic beverages, they know they'll never make another term.

[marky]

bring on the home brew

and treble the price yes they would look at fuel

[Graham]

Originally Posted by Escapee

Will this have any affect or is the guy an idiot?

What apart from the fact that homebrew kit sales and the production of bathtub gin will probably go through the roof...?!

Seriously, though, it will just end up with a massive increase in imports coming in from the continent since UK C&E *cannot* charge duty on stuff for private consumption and, as such, imports will be massively cheaper.

[Flubflow]

That reminds me I've still got my old homebrew stuff in the garage. I'm tempted to start up another classic batch of "Ye Olde Runny Botty" next week.