According to this research anyway, you owe us 😀

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11840560/Drinkers-subsidising-non-drinkers-by-6.5-billion-a-year.html

Where’s the “smug homebrew” face? 😀

I remember to give a thanks to all the drinkers at some point.

I do remember a while back the same thing was said about smokers and if the number of people smoking dropped the govn would go bankrupt

I got told the same thing by a GP once back when I smoked, essentially being thanked for subsidising healthcare for the rest of the population. I think it was tongue in cheek though; as I understand it, smoking-related illness costs the NHS more than smokers contribute via tax.

As for owing non-drinkers. No. No, I don’t think so.

Thank you to all the alcohol martyrs, although spent enough in the past, i must be fully paid up by now.
Just glad i’m not wasting my hard earned cash on that nonsense anymore.

I suppose you bloody parasites will be wanting to go to the pub after work, will you?

Its a bloody good job I’m so public spirited!

I wasn’t going to the pub but now I know it’s for the good of the country I may well change my plans.

All this very much hinges on whether or not you accept at face value the Institute of Economic Affair’s conclusion that stated that dealing with the health and crime effects of alcohol only costs the country 3.9 Billon.

Just to give you an alternative perspective Alcohol Concern reckon it costs the country £21 Billion a year and I’m more inclined to believe them than the IEA, a thinktank who spent much of the last 30 years publishing reports highly critical of the WHO’s anti-tobacco campaigns whilst taking large amount of funding from British America Tobacco and Phillip Morris.

They’re also infamously secretive about who funds them, what are the odds that some money from the big brewerys recently trickled into the IEA’s coffers recently?

Then you factor in the fact that 53% of violent incidents involving adults are Alcohol related according to the ONS I think we’re a very very long way from being able to definitively say that our drinking culture contributor to the national purse.

Lazy journalism and likely to give the UKIP voting bell-end fraternity one more axe to grind alongside the ‘fact’ that Cyclists don’t pay road Tax.

You don’t fancy joining me for a Stella then Hatter?

A hero for our austere times….

Cracking bit of research – just google who’s funding the IEA…hilarious…

For more fun google Christopher Snowden, the report’s actual author, he has an extensive track record of attacking established scientists on public health matters whilst evading questions about his financial links to the industries opposed to these programs.

Is it worth mentioning that even the staunchly unpolitical British Medical Journal have refused to publish any articles related to the IEA because of thier shady links to the Booze and Fags industries.

To quote directly:

The BMJ has two choices in relation to any articles from the IEA and related organisations: to require full disclosure of all funding or to refuse to publish the work. Without this, it is impossible to rule out or even assess potential financial conflicts of interest.

alongside the ‘fact’ that Cyclists don’t pay road Tax.

To be fair, that is a fact, we don’t. No one else does either mind.

To concur with you Hatter and the power of the organisations – about ten years ago very strong empirical evidence was published regarding the link between cancer and drinking alcohol – however it was completely squashed by the state and the organisations with vested interests in the sale of alcohol. Mental when you think of it.

I’m not usually quite this keen to research these things, however, I’m teetotal and I have a certain jag-driving pringle sweater wearing family member who I know will take great glee in regurgitating this tripe at me at the next family gathering.

Forewarned is forearmed.

The last thing a hatter needs is more mind altering substances. 😀