Alcohol prices + combatting binge drinking

[free spirit]

the only way I can see this doing anything positive is by pricing problem drinkers off special brew and onto cheaper lower alcohol beers from which there's more of a chance that they could ever actually taper themselves off it, or at least not kill themselves quite as fast.

if a 4.5 unit per can special brew is around £2 a can, but a can of carling is only 80-90p a can, I can see that this could well result in skint alcoholics opting for the carling instead of the spesh, and it's a lot harder to really cause yourself problems on 4% lager than it is on 9% stuff.

It could work I suppose, though I'm not entirely convinced, and reckon there's as much chance that it'll just cause others to spend even less on fruit and veg etc instead of cutting down on the booze.

 

[Ax^]

If you want to drink you'll always find a way,


And the idea that a true alcky is that worried about food is laughable

Anyhoo's

 

[Louis MacNeice]

My local is a free house - i'm paying £2.89 a pint from a local brewer (Dark Star). Go to well known brewery owned pub, & you'll be paying £3.60 - £4.00 for the same pint.

Yep same here...same brewery among many others. You don't drink in the Reservoir do you?

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[Mr.Bishie]

The Hanover. Never been in the Reservoir tbh

 

[chilango]

In Mexico to stop husbands spending all the household income on booze a certain proportion of your wages are paid in food vouchers.

Which you can buy booze at the supermarket with.

 

[chilango]

The more disposable income I've had, the less I've drank.

 

[Pickman's model]

If you want to drink you'll always find a way,


And the idea that a true alcky is that worried about food is laughable

Anyhoo's

You seem to think the only true alkie is a chronick alkie

 

[Pickman's model]

It's interesting to see the general construction of the alkie on this thread is a chronick alkie seemingly with a damaged liver. When the reality is rather different from that.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

It's interesting to see the general construction of the alkie on this thread is a chronick alkie seemingly with a damaged liver. When the reality is rather different from that.

Yes but it's a comfortingly different construction, not at all like us and ours, and therefore not needing the consideration that we deserve.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[spawnofsatan]

the only way I can see this doing anything positive is by pricing problem drinkers off special brew and onto cheaper lower alcohol beers from which there's more of a chance that they could ever actually taper themselves off it, or at least not kill themselves quite as fast.

if a 4.5 unit per can special brew is around £2 a can, but a can of carling is only 80-90p a can, I can see that this could well result in skint alcoholics opting for the carling instead of the spesh, and it's a lot harder to really cause yourself problems on 4% lager than it is on 9% stuff.

It could work I suppose, though I'm not entirely convinced, and reckon there's as much chance that it'll just cause others to spend even less on fruit and veg etc instead of cutting down on the booze.

Special Brew was £7 odd at Asda yesterday, for a four pack Yet 3 litres of generic white cider roughly the same percentage was £2.99

 

[chilango]

It's interesting to see the general construction of the alkie on this thread is a chronick alkie seemingly with a damaged liver. When the reality is rather different from that.

Aye. There is a massive difference in perception, and visibility, between the "alkie" and the wealthier drinkers.

I wonder, and I don't know the answer to this, if those who happily quaff a couple of bottles of good wine in the evening or half-dozen g&ts consume a comparable amount of units to the archetypical problem drinker with cans of lager/cider.

As ever it's a class thing innit?

 

[Quartz]

If not what do you think would be some better options

Go for it socially, as they did with cigarettes. Make it as socially unacceptable as smoking.

(should the fact that you like to go for a piss up at the weekend even be any of the governments business?)

None whatsoever.

 

[Mr.Bishie]

Special Brew was £7 odd at Asda yesterday, for a four pack Yet 3 litres of generic white cider roughly the same percentage was £2.99

That 3 litres of cider will soon be £6+

 

[ViolentPanda]

It's interesting to see the general construction of the alkie on this thread is a chronick alkie seemingly with a damaged liver. When the reality is rather different from that.

People don't like to admit that the bottle of wine they choose (ha!) to drink every night could possibly constitute the behaviour of an alcoholic.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Aye. There is a massive difference in perception, and visibility, between the "alkie" and the wealthier drinkers.

I wonder, and I don't know the answer to this, if those who happily quaff a couple of bottles of good wine in the evening or half-dozen g&ts consume a comparable amount of units to the archetypical problem drinker with cans of lager/cider.

As ever it's a class thing innit?

As Hogarth so effectively pointed out more than 250 years ago.

 

[Greebo]

In Mexico to stop husbands spending all the household income on booze a certain proportion of your wages are paid in food vouchers.

Which you can buy booze at the supermarket with.

 

[pinkmonkey]

People don't like to admit that the bottle of wine they choose (ha!) to drink every night could possibly constitute the behaviour of an alcoholic.

and I can think of alcoholics who make a great big song and dance about the quality and price of the wine they drink because they somehow seem to think that if everyone thinks they're a wine enthusiast that no one will notice that they're still drinking to get pissed.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

and I can think of alcoholics who make a great big song and dance about the quality and price of the wine they drink because they somehow seem to think that if everyone thinks they're a wine enthusiast that no one will notice that they're still drinking to get pissed.

Favourite pastime of the upper middle classes, certainly. Aided by the fact that people around them tend to be complicit anyway.

 

[_angel_]

Go for it socially, as they did with cigarettes. Make it as socially unacceptable as smoking.



None whatsoever.

Completely different history and social context with alcohol.

Tobacco is relatively new. Alcohols about as old as the human race?

Even birds like to get pissed when they get the chance.

 

[Firky]

Or address the reason why people drink to excess, perhaps? There are plenty of countries where you can buy very very cheap booze from the supermarket but people drink less than they do here. Increasing the price of a substance that people have some kind of dependency on is simply a way of bashing the poor, and causing them potentially to live even more unhealthily as more and more of their income goes on that substance.

I pretty much said the exact same thing on The British Liver Trust's Facebook page and was banned. I am quite tempted to complain in writing.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Is this LLETSA again?

 

[Quartz]

Completely different history and social context with alcohol.

Tobacco is relatively new. Alcohols about as old as the human race?

Tobacco may be relatively new, but narcotics as a whole, even excluding alcohol, aren't. Opium, for example, goes back to the dawn of history. Tobacco's just the latest.

 

[Corax]

Yes-we need as many artificial, subsidised jobs as possible to ease the unemployment caused by the ongoing economic crisis and the long-term economic decline of the West. It will still all come crashing down in the end, but it at least staves it off for a bit.

Yeah. Bloody public-sector parasites and their non-jobs. It's what's brought about the undisputable fact of the current economic apocalypse. String 'em up. Bastards.

*shakes fist*

 

[Pickman's model]

Is this LLETSA again?

wouldn't be surprised

 

[Pickman's model]

I was being serious. Without made up jobs* we'd be sunk.


*Not that I think all public sector jobs are 'made up', even if what's being suggested above would be. In any case, there are plenty of 'made up' jobs in the private sector. I wish I had one, as they usually pay well.

you could make one up

 

[Corax]

I was being serious. Without made up jobs* we'd be sunk.


*Not that I think all public sector jobs are 'made up', even if what's being suggested above would be. In any case, there are plenty of 'made up' jobs in the private sector. I wish I had one, as they usually pay well.

I'd be interested to hear what you consider 'made-up jobs'.

I'm sure there are some in the public sector. But whenever I've looked at the ones the tabloids lol at (a common space-filler for a slow news day it seems), all I've found is worthwhile jobs that have been given stupid titles.

 

[Pickman's model]

I could if I owned a firm, I suppose. But I don't own a firm.

Lack of imagination. You've fallen at the first hurdle.

 

[LiamO]

i'm married to the widow of an Alcoholic, can you tell?

Surely you should be glad he drank himself to death, no?

 

[Corax]

Jobs that serve no economic function

Scum. Burn them.

 

[Corax]

Who said that? I've actually said that many made up jobs are necessary to compensate for what capitalism fails to supply.

So these jobs are necessary, and fulfil a function. But are for some reason 'made-up'. As opposed to naturally occurring jobs, which nest in the wild and are rounded up and captured by headhunters to be sold on to companies and partnerships.

I'm being flippant and teasing a bit. But in all honesty, I'm wondering if you know what you mean by 'made-up jobs'. I certainly don't!