Minimum pricing on booze

[bladeplayer]

That argument doesn't really make, hiking the price of drink up a good case, as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather anyone who's pissed out of their mind on a Friday night be refused access to A & E !!! But no doubt someone will tell me I'm wrong!

I wouldnt say refuse , but by golly you should have to pay dear for it .. & if your on the equivelent of our medical card (free docs , medicine hosp etc) drink related injurys should have to be paid for , if you can pay for the drink you can pay for the treatment

 

[USER1999]

I wouldnt say refuse , but by golly you should have to pay dear for it .. & if your on the equivelent of our medical card (free docs , medicine hosp etc) drink related injurys should have to be paid for , if you can pay for the drink you can pay for the treatment

And then you can pay for your sports injury, your car crash, your heart issues due to crap diet, your smoking related diseases, your pregnancy and child birth, your diy accident, etc. Once you break it down, every thing you go to the docs for is actually your fault, so why should the tax payer foot the bill?

 

[birdieman]

Simple,
It'll be time to look out the homebrew kit again.........oh god no!

Why should beer be dear, it's cheap to make. The majority shouldn't suffer just because a few choose to overdo it, the root of these social problems need to be sorted first in the wider society, Govt should ask why do people feel the need to over-indulge in booze. If it's not drink it'll be something else. Just seems like a way of generating more tax revenue without working harder and coming up with better ways to cure some of society's ills which are the root cause of poverty and despair.

 

[bladeplayer]

And then you can pay for your sports injury, your car crash, your heart issues due to crap diet, your smoking related diseases, your pregnancy and child birth, your diy accident, etc. Once you break it down, every thing you go to the docs for is actually your fault, so why should the tax payer foot the bill?

Smoking = yes, diet if proven it aint medical related = yes .. the rest are accidental . ok if i play footbal, ride xtrail etc theres a chance i might get hurt.. but if i purposely drink , smoke or eat to excess then yes, if you can afford to do this to excess then you pay, not the taxpayer ..
I dont have one of these medical cards so i have to pay for all this as it is , so my tax shouldnt be paying for someone who abuses the above mentioned ..

 

[USER1999]

Smoking = yes, diet if proven it aint medical related = yes .. the rest are accidental . ok if i play footbal, ride xtrail etc theres a chance i might get hurt.. but if i purposely drink , smoke or eat to excess then yes, if you can afford to do this to excess then you pay, not the taxpayer ..
I dont have one of these medical cards so i have to pay for all this as it is , so my tax shouldnt be paying for someone who abuses the above mentioned ..

But if you drink and smoke, you are already paying more tax on this than will ever be spent on your health care. Why should you not get some use out of this money?

 

[bladeplayer]

But if you drink and smoke, you are already paying more tax on this than will ever be spent on your health care. Why should you not get some use out of this money?

Can totaly see your point Murph & would have to agree with you regarding the amount of tax you would have paid twords your treatment .. problem is not enough tax from drinking & smoking is funnelled directly back to help cure the problems they cause .. its just my opinion if you purposely & knowingly do something you know will damage your health , you should have to foot the bill yourself ..

but yes i can see an argument for well ive paid enough tax on my cigarettes to the government to cover any subsequent costs involved .. good point well made mate

 

[jpenno]

Smoking = yes, diet if proven it aint medical related = yes .. the rest are accidental . ok if i play footbal, ride xtrail etc theres a chance i might get hurt.. but if i purposely drink , smoke or eat to excess then yes, if you can afford to do this to excess then you pay, not the taxpayer ..
I dont have one of these medical cards so i have to pay for all this as it is , so my tax shouldnt be paying for someone who abuses the above mentioned ..

Theres millions of things that our taxes shouldnt pay for unfortunately we have no real say in where the taxes are spent

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Simple,
It'll be time to look out the homebrew kit again.........oh god no!

Why should beer be dear, it's cheap to make. The majority shouldn't suffer just because a few choose to overdo it, the root of these social problems need to be sorted first in the wider society, Govt should ask why do people feel the need to over-indulge in booze. If it's not drink it'll be something else. Just seems like a way of generating more tax revenue without working harder and coming up with better ways to cure some of society's ills which are the root cause of poverty and despair.

Trouble is birdieman it is not a few who choose to overdo it.

I live in rural Scotland with the nearest village/town 3 miles away.
Population of the village is 3,000 and there are 21 licenced premises within a mile.
Crazy, they are all in competition with each other. Even the garage sells booze.

 

[chrisd]

I dont see it as a problem about the availibility of booze or the price of it.

The problem is that for the last x number of years it appears that no one from the age of 16 upwards can have a good night out without getting totally rat arsed. I know that I am old by comparison to most here, but, in my youth any boy getting drunk was considered a complete "berk or yobbo" and a drunk girl was generally a "slut". I know that these were wildly inaccurate and stupid comments looking back, but people generally did not get drunk on a night out at the club/pub or disco.

Also, most of us were married in our early 20's and had bills and mortgages to pay at an earlier age than todays youngsters usually have left university, and we didn't have credit cards, so that we were spending cash, so that when it had gone there was no more money until pay day - added to which the bank of "mum and dad" hadn't been invented back then! You couldn't leave your credit card behind the bar.

It doesn't make our times, back then, better, but todays ethos of "I'm going out to get bladdered" three times a week doesn't justify putting the price up of my occasional glass of port up to stop some 18 year old from binge drinking - there need to be education as to the dangers, show them a 30 year old binge drinkers liver, that should do it!

 

[MegaSteve]

I thought we'd heard the last of the 'nanny state' when Blair went down the road... How wrong was I ...

If they must make it hard to get cheap alcohol. Then legislate to stop supermarket chains selling booze as a loss leader...

 

[bigslice]

imo we should follow our viking friends and make bevvy state run and you are limited to a certain amount per week. alcohol is killing Scotland's NHS system. me i like a drink i enjoy the company and social aspect. but if there was no bevvy i could live with that. i can drink but in my 38 years (dad had me on the black stuff young) probably 4 times been totally out of it.

the damage and cost to life is massive, dont get me started on drugs!

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Mega Steve
They have already done this in Scotland and Tesco's brought in a scam where people living in Scotland could order and pay for their cheap booze from England and get it delivered from Scotland. Great ethitical trader eh!

Re Chrisd's port. It would not go up in price as the system is aimed at the white cider type of drinker.
I think that they should also look at reducing caffine in drinks/ mixers. Wired drunks is not a happy combination. Buckfast which is responsible for untold damage in Scotland is 15% alcohol and 15% caffine .

 

[MegaSteve]

Mega Steve
They have already done this in Scotland and Tesco's brought in a scam where people living in Scotland could order and pay for their cheap booze from England and get it delivered from Scotland. Great ethitical trader eh!

Hello Doon frae Troon

Let it be known that if they choose not to 'play the game' then legislation to be introduced stopping 'multiples' from selling alcohol... I don't remember supermarkets 'stacking it high selling it cheap' [alcohol] 40+ years ago when I started partaking... So why the need now?

BTW Just to clarify I am not an alchy... About 30 units a week... To date have not had the 'pleasure' of 'Buckie'... And most probably never will...

 

[daymond]

If you get caught doing 35 in a 30mph zone you can get points and 60 odd pounds. If you become drunk and disorderly in a publlic place the police do nothing. Three hours in a cell and a £100 fine every time would soon cut down the weekend etc. excesses.

 

[connor]

petrols through the roof same for fags and now booze.

its crazy everything goes up in price yet the average mans wages dont seem to go with it? its ok for all the pompus gents in westminster they can afford it! but it really is punishing the common man who just about gets by as it is.
I can see the booze runs to france being a regular thing and coming back into fashion

 

[HomerJSimpson]

As someone who nearly drank himself into an early grave, out 7 nights of week and only having 4-5 pints. However you add that consumption up over a 20 year period and you can see why the pancreas was close to popping and it was a blue light job into hospital a 3 1/2 week stay and lifelong diabetes as a Brucie bonus.

I can see what the government is trying to do and there is some validity to their argument but as usual they've gone at it from the wrong angle.

 

[In_The_Rough]

All this will do if it goes ahead which I am not convinced it will as there will be some very unhappy campers here including big businesses is make Britain a smugglers haven. The government will end up out of pocket as more booze cruises and illegal activity will be taking place. This again will be another vote loser along with the NHS reform and the Tuition fees row make you wonder if they actually want to get re-elected.

 

[Yerman]

I probably see another new alcohol dependent customer on a weekly basis and I'm just an average GP. Across the country the problem is enormous, and booze is everywhere, even saturday morning now has Saturday kitchen tell you what wine to buy, bring back TISWAS. Too many adults seem to think they've not had a good night out if they can remember it. Pricing does make a difference, you may wish it was otherwise but I know of no-one who deals with this in a professional capacity that doesn't agree that rationing using price is a good thing. :cheers:
(I believe in irony,:ears

 

[Yer Maw]

drink is cheap as chips these days and need a huge price hike to get it back to being a price where it treated as being just as expensive as pubs. Pubs are dying on their feet because of supermarket booze. But pubs are where people should go for a drink. It's controlled and sensibly priced and no bloody teenagers getting off their heads.
Seriously, kids are drinking serious amounts of booze these days. It's out of control and a hefty price hike is a starting point.

 

[In_The_Rough]

drink is cheap as chips these days and need a huge price hike to get it back to being a price where it treated as being just as expensive as pubs. Pubs are dying on their feet because of supermarket booze. But pubs are where people should go for a drink. It's controlled and sensibly priced and no bloody teenagers getting off their heads.
Seriously, kids are drinking serious amounts of booze these days. It's out of control and a hefty price hike is a starting point.

Really!! Not in all the pubs I have had the pleasure of going in, I would say it is exactly the apposite to be honest. Might be the case in the small village and country pubs but any town/city pub is normally packed with them. Don't think a price hike will make one bit of difference to the ardent drinkers and personally I don't think the Government is doing it for that anyway they see it as another way to screw more Tax out of the average Joe soap on the street.