The papers claim “yes“:

Supermarkets have been accused of encouraging binge drinking by continuing to sell alcohol more cheaply than bottled water.
Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s are among those selling beer at just over 5p per 100ml. This contrasts with a typical price of about 8p for 100ml of brand-name mineral water. (The Times)

But the truth, however, is rather different:

The ‘lager’ to which they are referring is the Basics range gunk, a brew so weak and inspidid that it’s nigh on water anyway. The equivalent, obviously enough, is the Sainsburys Basics …

Just after David Cameron decided to announce a bansturbation policy on alcohol – trebling the cost to drinkers – Greater Manchester police show that you don’t need to raise taxes to prevent alcohol-related violence. You just just arrest the people who are the problem.

A total of 529 people have been arrested in Greater Manchester in a major police operation targeting alcohol-related violent crime.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said about 3,000 officers and police staff are involved in Operation Admiral.
Police arrested 447 people on Friday, on top of a further 82 who …

According to the media, David Cameron would triple the tax on alcohol. I’ve got one thing to say to that:
Don’t do it, Dave!
Raising the cost of alcohol will not prevent drink-related crimes or violence. It will not stop people binge-drinking. It will not prevent any of the “social problems” that are related to alcohol. It will not prevent people drinking themselves into an early grave. It will not “save” the NHS any money.
An increase in the minimum cost of alcohol will simply mean that those who want to get drunk, …

This government continually lectures us on how much we drink and keeps telling us how bad it is for us to let even the slightest drop of alcohol pass our lips – it will give us sclerosis of the liver, cancer, make us obese, and generally be bad for us.
They regard it as so bad that they keep putting up the taxes on it. I don’t think there’s been a Brown (or Darling) Budget which hasn’t increased taxes on alcohol – at the very least, they have never reduced it.
Yet …

The Advertising Standards Authority are a bunch of jobsworths, banning a poster campaign featuring the tagline “Take Courage, my friend” advertising Courage beer. Why because

Three members of the public believed the poster implied that the beer would give the man confidence to either make negative comments on the woman’s appearance or take advantage of her.
We considered that the combination of the text and the image of the man with an open beer can and half-empty glass of beer was likely to be understood by consumers to carry the clear implication …

So the SNP are determined to go ahead with their plan to stop the sale of “cut-price” alcohol. Why? To cut the “misuse” of alcohol.
They propose to make the minimum price of alcohol about 40p per unit and ban promotions on alcohol. How stupid can they be?
Raising the price of alcohol won’t prevent any misuse of alcohol – all it will do is cost people more. Anyone who drinks to excess won’t stop just because it costs them a bit more – they’ll just cut it out from somewhere else, …

Now colour me surprised, as researchers have found out in a study that “health campaigns warning of the dangers of alcohol are being ignored by many young people”. Fuck me, they paid people to repeat the blindingly obvious – that could have been got for free right here on this blog?
The so-called ‘educational’ adverts on alcohol that tell people not to exceed “safe levels” of alcohol consumption are deemed as “laughably unrealistic” by people for one very good reason: because they’re all made up.
People know how much alcohol it is …

Yesterday was what is commonly known as "Black-Eye Friday". Final Friday before Christmas – so lots of office parties, several last days at work before Christmas shut-downs, it becomes one of the biggest "nights out" of the year. With the predictable effect on people going out and drinking, and then doing what people unfortunately do when they’ve had one Bacardi Breezer too many.
That’s those that are able to still have co-ordination after drinking too much. The rest end up sat on the pavement feeling (and generally looking) very sorry for …

Alistair Darling has already had to start backtracking on the measure announced in the Pre-Budget Report – aka the emergency budget.

The Chancellor was forced to backtrack on a key element of his Pre-Budget Report (PBR) on Wednesday after he admitted that the Treasury had got its sums wrong and raised the duty on spirits by too much.
The proposed duty rise of 8 per cent announced on Monday, part of a package of duty increases designed to offset the cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent, has …