Yet again it seems the temperance movement are back biting at drinkers heals.  Ignore the fact we are massively over taxed on alcohol and currently we’ve got people whinging about how cheap a unit of alcohol is.

Alcohol problems are a big issue we shouldn’t ignore, but increasing prices don’t ever seem to have achieved anything apart from line the pockets of the government.

Apparently the old argument of giving children alcohol is bad.  This is not as clear cut as it sounds.  Give two situations 1.) little Johnny sitting down for a sunday lunch with a small glass of wine 2.) little Johnnys parents giving him a pack of alcopops and letting him go down the local park.

Ignoring the issue of responsible drinking, which is responsible parenting?  The root cause is not the drink, but the parenting and not the price of cheap alcohol.  Granted the issues in the south are not the same as those up north and it’ll be impossible to make one law for all, but the point is normalising kids to alcohol removes the mystery and stops them from overdoing it later in life.  It worked for my friends and I, but when the kids at university who’d never had the opportunity to have a drink at home were let off the leash, they were the first comotose on the floor and their friends (not far off it) were the ones who’d never seen a paraletic student and were the first on the phone to the ambulances that were needlessly called out.

Pricing alcohol has historically never had the required effect, it takes a social attitude change which is long term – not a quick fix to line the governments pockets.

Meanwhile my homebrew gets cheaper…