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Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 14:39:29

Title: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 14:39:29
The Government are going to introduce later this year laws to set minimum price per unit of alcohol of at least 40p per unit and ban supermarkets from multi-buy deal etc. >:( >:( >:( >:(

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9162174/Minimum-alcohol-price-could-be-higher-than-40p-per-unit.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9162174/Minimum-alcohol-price-could-be-higher-than-40p-per-unit.html)

The majority suffer again, because of the breakless, ill mannered, rude, abusive, drunken few AGAIN.  >:( >:( >:( >:(

I expect to have left the UK by then or it would be out with my home brew equipment again.   :y :y :y

Like a lot of small businesses I've been hard hit by the recession, so all I normally drink and can afford at the moment is a couple of bottles of cheap cider a week at £1.95 under the new rules these will be about £4.40.  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

This won't apply to the House of Commons of course.  >:( >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 14:41:28
And don't forget there is VAT on this so another nice little earner for the Government and that is why duty did not go up in the budget.

Barstewards.  >:( >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Kevin Wood on 23 March 2012, 14:44:48
I'm not so sure, actually..

I quite like drinking beer in pubs, and I don't like chavs drinking cheap supermarket plonk on the streets. If this goes some way to redress the balance and slow the frightening rate at which pubs are closing then so much the better, although I'd rather have seen something that addresses the stupid levels of duty on beer served in pubs rather than continues to escalate it.
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Nickbat on 23 March 2012, 15:00:18
Yet another sledgehammer to crack a nut, unfortunately.

The sensible answer is to allow employers to take disciplinary action against any employee who is charged with being drunk and disorderly whenever and wherever the offence is committed. If the offender is unemployed, just dock their dole money.

Simples.  ;)
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Kevin Wood on 23 March 2012, 15:13:41
Yet another sledgehammer to crack a nut, unfortunately.

The sensible answer is to allow employers to take disciplinary action against any employee who is charged with being drunk and disorderly whenever and wherever the offence is committed. If the offender is unemployed, just dock their dole money.

Simples.  ;)

What I do outside work is none of my employer's business, though, and that's how it should stay.

If there wasn't such a cost incentive for people to drink unsupervised there wouldn't be such a problem... and you could argue that the landlord deserves a tax break for his role in deciding that "you've had enough, mate".

As it his he gets the hassle of the ssip heads who have already binge drunk at home and then gone out but makes very little money out of it, not surprisingly, by being forced to sell beer at £3.50 a pint.
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: CaptainZok on 23 March 2012, 15:18:00
I'd like to know when drinking became a first to throw up and pass out race.
When I went out as a teenager the idea was to enjoy the evening, have a few beers and a laugh with my mates and end the night merrily staggering up to the chippy, not be paralytic by half past nine.
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Kevin Wood on 23 March 2012, 15:19:45
I'd like to know when drinking became a first to throw up and pass out race.
When I went out as a teenager the idea was to enjoy the evening, have a few beers and a laugh with my mates and end the night merrily staggering up to the chippy, not be paralytic by half past nine.

I think it might be the race to down as much "Value" vodka as possible before hitting the streets. ;)
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 16:05:45
Reading on another blog, that when making alcohol expensive in Norway, all it did was increase the amount of home-brew made by youngsters or they used cheap soft drugs instead.

So, it won't solve the problem, so price the per unit will have to go up more, to try and solve the problem etc., etc.  >:( >:( >:(

Won't be long before we are talking with nostalgia: Do you remember when we only paid a minimum of 40p per unit, yes, much cheaper than the £6.80 now.  >:( >:( >:( >:(
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Kevin Wood on 23 March 2012, 16:59:37
Reading on another blog, that when making alcohol expensive in Norway, all it did was increase the amount of home-brew made by youngsters or they used cheap soft drugs instead.

<grumpy old man>I'd be impressed if a significant percentage of our youngsters were that resourceful.</grumpy old man>

 ;)
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Varche on 23 March 2012, 18:14:25
It won't significantly reduce the amount drunk. People will still get bladdered regardless of the price.

Better would be to charge the drunks on the street.

My question is who gets the increase in price of each unit? Supermarkets no doubt. Plus the duty increase to the government.?
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 18:30:24
18 when I started making home brew, along with several friends at that age.  :y

We would gather round at a friends house whose brew was ready for a sample, by the time we had finished sampling, he had run out and was ready to make the next batch.   ;) :y

3 weeks to make, 3 hours to drink.  ;D
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Tony H on 23 March 2012, 18:57:09
Looking at the figures the proposed increase will double the price of cheap strong cider ABV 7.5% to over thee pounds per bottle  yet only increase the price of vodka ABV over 40% by 80p it aint rocket science to work out what people who want to get hammered are going to buy. The risk to health is a lot higher drinking shorts than beer or cider. A very ill thought out policy I think.
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Kieran on 23 March 2012, 19:27:35
The Goverment have got this all wrong.They should be targeting advertising and the film industry. There are so many childrens films for example Tintin and Pirates of the Caribean etc who have characters who glorify drunken actors making them out to be funny whilst drunk and end up being some sort of hero. Drinking alcohol and showing someone drunk in childrens films should be frowned upon in the same sense as smoking and drug taking.

Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: jerry on 23 March 2012, 19:45:39
Not that I drink much at all these days but hitting booze and fags in this manner isnt really going to deter people. Re the selling of booze in supermarkets, is this not tightened up enough by the "challenge 25" legislation as it is? Certainly the big chains seem to be compliant-its the smaller and independent ones that are more likely to supply it inappropriately as they probably always have. As for fags, well the profit for supermarkets on them is (like fuel) a drop in the ocean compared with the tax. I understand the whole issue of drink/smoking related costs to the NHS for example but it does make you think that if such taxation really did cut down significantly on the sales of booze and fags, just where would they claw back the massive lost revenue in tax? Ooops-that would be fuel again then >:(
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: tigers_gonads on 23 March 2012, 20:16:45
I made two 20 ltr barrels of "Irish Stout" from a couple of homebrew kits I got from Boots about 10 years ago.

One went that christmas and I poured the rest into old 3 ltr cider bottles, stuck them at the back of the shed (where it was the coolest) and forgot about them  ::)

Measured the specific gravity when the brew was fermenting and it came out at 7.8 %.

Will these bottles be drinkable or am I better off sticking it in the petrol tank  ;D
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 20:34:57
Try one, the stronger the alcohol level the longer a drink will generally keep.

About 12 months a go I found 8 very old cans of Guinness, in the back of my workbench cupboard, I had bought them in France and they had a best before date of 1997, I was surprised they were perfectly okay.
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 23 March 2012, 20:41:13
It is an ill wind that does nobody any good.  :'(

When this happens I sure the cross Channel booze run become very popular again, which will be good for mainly French owned Eurotunnel, Brittany Ferries and French supermarkets. Should give a good boost to the French GDP.  :o :o :o
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: tigers_gonads on 24 March 2012, 07:11:59
Try one, the stronger the alcohol level the longer a drink will generally keep.

About 12 months a go I found 8 very old cans of Guinness, in the back of my workbench cupboard, I had bought them in France and they had a best before date of 1997, I was surprised they were perfectly okay.


Will do
Thanks for the info  :y
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Sir Tigger KC on 24 March 2012, 12:29:03
I have to admit that I don't really understand this issue.....  :-[

Is duty not charged on off sales? Is the proposed 40p per unit a tax or just a minimum price?

If it's a minimum price all it will do is boost the profits of the supermarkets?  If they want to increase the price, why not increase the duty on off sales and help the country's finances?  :-\

In my opinion, the only way to stop the drunken disorder in our towns and cities is to robustly police and enforce the drunk and disorderly laws!! Throw people in a drunk tank! Fine them! Make them do community service!! Also if you end up in hospital as a result of irresponsible drinking you should be charged for your treatment!!  >:( >:( >:(

I'm probably sounding like a grumpy old man and at 42 that might be right!!  ;) 
Title: Re: Minimum price for alcohol announced by Government
Post by: Rods2 on 24 March 2012, 14:33:19
High taxes was tried in the 1730's and 1740's in the UK, over big problems with 'Gin' as famously depicted in Hogarth paintings. All it did like US prohibition was drive the trade underground. So the laws were appealed in 1751.

It will make no difference in this country, so expect alcohol, like in many Scandinavian countries to become a luxury. Weekend Scandinavian booze cruises in the Baltic Sea are very popular to get round the high taxes, so expect the same again with weekend Channel crossings to France.  ::) ::) ::)

Apparently what they are planning is illegal under EU law as it discriminates against cheaper products and stifles competition. With the EU saying it should be done through taxation. EU Single European Act might actually be useful for once.

This is the start of the outlawing of alcohol, like they are trying hard to do with smoking, still it will make the total banning of  alcohol by our first Muslim majority Government is about two generations much easier as the softening up process will have been going on for 40 years.  >:( >:( >:( >:(