Cheap Alcohol

by Chris | 17 Jan 2008 | No Comments

Why won’t they just leave us alone?

Ministers are threatening to change the law to stop supermarkets advertising beer and wine at bargain prices in a bid to tackle the epidemic of binge drinking sweeping Britain…
Ministers have become frustrated that supermarkets discount beer and wine to the extent that they sell it at a loss in order to entice customers through the doors of their shops.
Ideally ministers would like to force retailers to charge customers more for beer, wine and cider. (The Telegraph)

Why is it any business of the government what price supermarkets sell alcohol at? Why? If there was even one good reason, it might be acceptable to even a slight extent. But a good reason for this doesn’t exist. At all.

If I want to drink alcohol, I will. And I am as I write this post. And yes, this is beer bought from a supermarket at their “cheap” price. If they want to sell alcohol as a loss-leader, that is their prerogative as a private business. If I want to buy and consume lots of cheap alcohol, that is my right as an individual.

And they blame the one good law that Labour have brought in in the last decade: 24-hour drinking. Not that it actually exists anywhere…

It’s not up to the Nanny State what I do with my own body, whether or not they think it’s bad. It is my work that earns me my money that I use some of to buy alcohol from the supermarket at the price which they want to sell it to me at. At what point in that is the government involved? I already pay tax on the money I have earned, and then more tax on the alcohol when I buy it.

I don’t care that “[f]igures released last week showed that half a million people or 1,200 people every day – are being admitted to hospital each year after drinking too much.” That’s the choice of that tiny number of people who drink alcohol. They have drunk too much at that time. But so what? Everyone does it at some point. Anyone who claims never to have drunk too one at one time is either lying or seriously boring.

Supermarkets choose to sell their alcohol as a loss-leader [or to offer wine coupons] because they want to. And why is it anything to do with the government? It’s their business for crying out loud!

Why won’t they just leave us alone? Please?

Categories: Alcohol, Nanny State

No Comment »

  • Richard said:

    “Why won’t they just leave us alone? Please?”

    Pretty please ….?

    I would most definitely vote for a party that has this as its vade mecum.

    # 18 January 2008 at 11:35 am
  • Asp said:

    I see that the Garry Newlove argument is being used again.
    Most of the people that killed Garry Newlove were under the age of 18.

    Perhaps a more immediate problem isn’t drinking in general, but underage drinking?

    # 18 January 2008 at 7:35 pm
  • Bobby, not the liver said:

    Trust me when I tell you that I didn’t see this post before writing mine a day later. It is a coincidence , pure and simple. In fact I agree with you, that you should be left alone to drink the cheapest beer you can find if that’s what you want. I found your blog months ago, but had not read it very much yet until today, I noticed the plastic police post. I really like your blog, and will subscribe to it, now I think.

    # 20 January 2008 at 1:18 am
  •   ASDA, Alcohol, and the SNP by The ThunderDragon said:

    [...] right to buy cheap alcohol from an off-licence or alcoholmarket supermarket is not something that they should be allowed to [...]

    # 30 June 2008 at 8:55 am

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