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Friday 15 May 2009

More alco-nazism.

Christ, this is so depressing, not least because I find myself agreeing with Gordon Clown.
Setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol at 50p would save 3,400 lives a year without hitting on the moderate drinker, MPs heard.
Gordon Brown has already rejected the idea saying it would 'punish' the moderate drinker but this argument was 'specious' and 'selfish', the Commons Health Select Committee was told.
Researchers at Sheffield University said a 50p per unit minimum would add just £12 a year to the drinks bill of the moderate drinker however someone drinking at harmful levels would be forced to pay £163 a year more.
I have to be honest and admit that I expected it to have come from one of the usual fake charities, though I'd be surprised if they don't come out of the woodwork before long.
In a speech on Tuesday Gordon Brown said: "We are going to bring in a new mandatory code on the sale of alcohol – not as some have asked bringing in a minimum price, which would punish the majority of responsible drinkers – but to tackle binge drinking, targeting the kind of promotions – like "drink all you can for a fiver" – which can turn some town centres into no-go areas."
Gord you tool, you don't even need to do that. No-go areas are down to two things: the over indulgence of an irresponsible minority and the failure of the police and courts to deal with them properly. Let the market sort out the prices and the promotions, and then get the police to arrest those who allow themselves to get out of control as a result. No pressure, just when they can find time away from harassing motorists, guarding Jacqboot Smith's main home/second home/sister's home, calling her a third world dictator and beating up protestors and innocent bystanders.
But in evidence to the Select Committee, Mike Craik, Chief Constable of Northumbria, Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Lead for Licensing said he supported a minimum unit price.
"The evidence is clear and unequivocal.
"It even accommodates the slightly specious and not least selfish argument around punishing the moderate drinker. I don't quite buy that and that is my personal and professional view not necessarily the ACPO view.
As I said, try arresting the troublemakers. The responsible majority of people can get off their dials and be no trouble at all. The rest should be encouraged to spend their Friday and Saturday nights somewhere where there's no alcohol. Prison for example.
In Scotland ministers are already considering introducing a minimum price per unit of alcohol.
Which suggest the Nats are as big a bunch of authoritarian pricks as the rest. Poor bloody Scots, what the fuck have they done to deserve it? Other than vote for the bastards of course.
Dr Petra Meier, of Sheffield University was commissioned by the Department of Health to evaluate the effect different policies would have on drinking levels and associated harm.
...
Dr Meier told the Health Select Committee the 50p minimum would prevent 3,400 deaths and reduce the number of hospital admissions by 98,000 a year.
Harmful drinkers are defined by Government statistics as someone who drinks around 3,600 units a year.
...
These numbers wouldn't have been pulled out of Dr Meier's arse, would they? It's not like there isn't a precedent for it, is there?
Moderate drinkers are those who drinking within recommended levelso of less than 14 units per week for women and less than 21 uinits [sic] a week for men. Harmful drinkers are defined as more than 50 units a week for men and more than 35 units a week for women - levels that experts say it likely to lead to negative helth consequences.
That'd be the same 21 units for men and 14 for women that, as the Devil said, were made up on the spot over twenty years ago. So I think my doubts about the reliability of any claims of X thousand prevented deaths, or hospital admissions, or hangovers, or drunken shags, or whatever, have some justification. Perhaps if I drink a whole slab of beer this weekend it'll sound more convincing.
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