The cost of drinking.

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Not sure. Look at the Green Party :aauo: (sorry wrong party smilie). They used to be dismissed as tree huggers and full of hot air (obviously that is the cause of global warming :gaga2: ). Now there green bits in every party / policy! Agree with them or not they’ve weaselled their message into politics and surprisingly :tuttut: its costing us in taxation.

Who would have thought 30 years ago smoking would be banned in public places? Its here and now! :kos:

Drink Driving was almost as accepted as going for a pint not so long ago, now its akin to baby snatching!

So who knows if society will moralise over the cost of drinking – the brain washing that it a good thing has already started.

We are repeatedly told that the cost of alcohol is far too cheap compared with what it used to be. Well its not. A pint in a West End Hotel cost me 16p when I started drinking. That’s 1.45/1.58 using the retail price index (up to 2008, the latest my wee website has for doing this sort of calc), or 2.35/2.67 using average earnings. Watch the barman in the Rutland laugh in your face when you offer him that for the pint you’ve just bought!

Still if we are told (lied to), by important people, often enough, enough people will be believe.


It might not be a NHS problem but they will be left with the bill at the end of the day so I suppose it is their problem.
 
BBC News - Trying to break Russia's vodka dependence

We're no quite at the Russian stage yet but.....

It's our attitude to drink that's the problem,It's been handed down through our parents and older generations.Basically we're brought up to think that whether we're celebrating or on a downer about something we should have a drink to escape.

The Government are in a strange position of having to tell people to cut back health wise but benefiting massively from the tax it brings in,also if folk werenae out of their faces half the time on various substances then there's good chance folk (Being clear headed and arsed) would start using their vote to decent effect.
 
You could always blame Gaelic for the way it is eating unnecessarily into govt budgets.:wink:
 
Hampden_Hibby said:
Will society moralise on this issue like it does so strongly on the tobacco - NHS issue?

Doubt it.

BBC News - Rising alcohol addiction costs 'could cripple the NHS'
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where does it end? what about sports injuries, what about STIs, and so on.

Not to mention gender reassignment and whatnot.

The NHS is slowly dying, and this sort of thing will only hasten it. As a taxpayer I'm not delighted at funding the fallout from drink. But then again I'd rather fund that than our industrial levels of abortion.

Others will be happy with abortion, but resent paying for others things.

In a society where there are no organic shared values, this is the problem the state inevitably runs into when it starts imposing it's own morality; it will never please everyone. Ultimately you risk bankrupting yourself to fund everything, or losing the consent of those who supply the funds, by picking and choosing based on values which are not shared.

A statist approach doesn't work in a heterogeneous, liberal society. Over the next decades the state will either be rolled back or else democracy will be rolled back. You can't square a circle.
 
I find it hard to believe that people are drinking more than they used to.

I also think it the government and media are happily demonising the drinks industry. People can still drink responsibly.
 
In contrast the income from alcohol duty was 7 billion, with a further 6 billion in VAT


Up to 12 million people in this country are dependent on alcohol or drink hazardously compared with 300,000 problematic drug users. Providing drug treatment for users of illegal drugs is a high government priority but there is comparatively little provision of treatment for alcohol related problems. As a consequence, 67% of dependent or harmful drug users have access to treatment, compared with 5.7% for alcohol. The budget for the UK drug strategy in 2005-6 was 1,483 million but there is no dedicated budget for the UK alcohol strategy.

In addition to the absence of dedicated funding for alcohol treatment, there are no targeted waiting times for alcohol treatment and very few alcohol services for people with alcohol related chronic disease, many of whom do not have the features of alcohol dependence and as a result are under the radar of addiction services. In contrast the National Treatment Agency waiting time target for a Drug Intervention Program (DIP) is one week.

Providing adequate treatment for adults and young people would significantly reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse.

Furthermore despite the wealth of evidence showing that early interventions in hazardous drinkers are both effective and cost effective , alcohol prevention strategies are unfunded and as a result very few exist.
 
greensalamander said:
In contrast the income from alcohol duty was 7 billion, with a further 6 billion in VAT


Up to 12 million people in this country are dependent on alcohol or drink hazardously compared with 300,000 problematic drug users. Providing drug treatment for users of illegal drugs is a high government priority but there is comparatively little provision of treatment for alcohol related problems. As a consequence, 67% of dependent or harmful drug users have access to treatment, compared with 5.7% for alcohol. The budget for the UK drug strategy in 2005-6 was 1,483 million but there is no dedicated budget for the UK alcohol strategy.

In addition to the absence of dedicated funding for alcohol treatment, there are no targeted waiting times for alcohol treatment and very few alcohol services for people with alcohol related chronic disease, many of whom do not have the features of alcohol dependence and as a result are under the radar of addiction services. In contrast the National Treatment Agency waiting time target for a Drug Intervention Program (DIP) is one week.

Providing adequate treatment for adults and young people would significantly reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse.

Furthermore despite the wealth of evidence showing that early interventions in hazardous drinkers are both effective and cost effective , alcohol prevention strategies are unfunded and as a result very few exist.
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Exactly.

And lets not forget there is a budget looming and they need a few months scare mongering before they tax alcohol even higher.

I wouldn't mind paying excessive tax on alcohol if the revenue was used in a REAL programme aimed at teaching responsible drinking and intervening early with hazardous drinkers. It isn't though and unlikely to be any time soon.

Oh and egb if we were to be able to pick and choose where our taxes go I certainly wouldn't be concerned with the services provided within the health service rather I would be looking at the budget for defence firstly and foremostly.
 
El Bastardo said:
Oh and egb if we were to be able to pick and choose where our taxes go I certainly wouldn't be concerned with the services provided within the health service rather I would be looking at the budget for defence firstly and foremostly.
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well that's exactly my point.
 
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