Morning:
8°c
"Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for tuppence."
Here we go again, reeling down Gin Lane. The price of basic booze in the big supermarkets is now laughable. A large can of lager for 22p? It is hardly surprising that the directors of Tesco have accepted that they have "a role to play in addressing the problem of anti-social drinking".
So the supermarket has feebly asked for government help in raising prices among all retailers, without infringing competition laws. Tesco has promised to take a responsible approach to licensing hours, not to advertise alcohol near schools and to encourage responsible drinking in its advertising.
It will be interesting to see how the latter is done. At the moment, you get flagrant hypocrisy displayed on a single can. Tesco sells Tennents Super Strong lager, containing a grotesque nine per cent of alcohol, notoriously the brew of choice for desperate alcoholics. On the can, in half-hearted recognition of that fact, it pleads: "Please Drink Responsibly." Then, just as prominently, it offers the seductive tip: "Serve Ice Cold." The truth is that it is irresponsible to drink such toxic stuff at all. Or, therefore, to sell it.
For its part, the BMA has been suggesting that, in the current crisis, measures beyond just fixing minimum prices are needed: cutting the drink-driving limit, curbing advertisements, banning happy hours, and more funding for specialist medical treatment. What some doctors would like, of course, is alcohol available only on prescription, from doctors. Not a vote-winner among non-doctors, I suspect.
Consumption does rise and fall in relation to price. The gin craze in 18th-century London is the most famous example. By 1750, 11 million gallons of gin was being produced and drunk annually. In 1751, a bill was passed to tax and control the distribution of gin and it worked. By 1790, consumption had dropped to a mere million gallons. Public disorder and alcohol-related mortality declined proportionately.
But nothing like that stands any chance of succeeding now. Yes, making lager cheaper than crisps is an incitement to stupidity. But there is no question of putting alcohol up to a price that would be a real deterrent - because we live now in a culture where we don't accept that price should deny us anything any more.
Not so long ago, children couldn't imagine being able to buy all the sweets they wanted, and adults wouldn't have dreamed of being able to open bottles every night. Now nearly all of us can afford to eat too much food and down too much drink (and perhaps travel too much, too) . So that's what we do. We over-consume everything, not just booze. That's pretty much who we are these days. There's no quick fix for that.
