[Closed] Minimum alcohol pricing

I paid £9 for a pint of 12% stuff last week in Brewdog Leeds.
was nice, but not something to drink on a session.

I thought you "enjoyed" a wee tipple of frosty jacks?

50p per unit minimum, so it won't really affect beer, but it will make wine very expensive, which won't please the missus.

around £4.50 a bottle will be the minimum price for wine IIRC

around £4.50 a bottle will be the minimum price for wine IIRC

There's more than 9 units in a bottle of wine isn't there, surely?

yeah, a bottle of red wine, typical strength will be about 9 or 10 units, so will likely impact wine when it's on offer or promotion (25% for 6 bottles, say) rather than the standard price.

Wine is usually between 9 and 11 units per bottle.

Ahh, yeh I suppose it won't really affect wine then either.

I suppose the law is just designed to stop the realy cheap strong stuff, so I guess it won't really affect most people.

I have no problem with the underlying idea, but I don’t think this is a good way to go. As it is a minimum price the extra “profit” goes to the shop, it would have been better as a tax where the state/society benefits.

extra “profit” goes to the shop

Is that true?.

it would have been better as a tax where the state/society benefits.

Yeh generally agree, however a blanket tax hike on alcahol would be unpopular and have everyone kicking off, I suppose this is an 'easier' way to do it..

More nanny state bollocks!

I work in the wine trade and generally anything under £5 a bottle isn't worth drinking so minimum pricing at 50p a unit won't hurt our sales. If anything, it might help them as supermarkets will struggle to push their £3.99 loss leader bottles. As others have said, beer drinkers won't be out of pocket either.

The only losers here are the white cider / superstrength lager producers, which can only be a good thing for society.

wrightyson - Member
More nanny state bollocks!

Yip, the snp are heavy into that kinda thing.

Ahh, yeh I suppose it won't really affect wine then either.

Well - look at you paying more than £4.50 a bottle! 😀

And it will all shift up accordingly to differentiate between perceived 'quality' wines and beers. So your £7 wine will become £9, your £13 box of Peroni will become £16 etc.

We all lose out.

Don't be sucked in by the 50p per unit not impacting prices for normal drinkers, it is the thin end of the wedge to get the principal established with minimum fuss.

devash - Member
I work in the wine trade and generally anything under £5 a bottle isn't worth drinking so minimum pricing at 50p a unit won't hurt our sales. If anything, it might help them as supermarkets will struggle to push their £3.99 loss leader bottles. As others have said, beer drinkers won't be out of pocket either.

The only losers here are the white cider / superstrength lager producers, which can only be a good thing for society.

re wine: will it push up prices in the current 10 to 20 quid bracket? there will just be an increase across the board, no?

It might be more effective to spend money on effective treatment programmes and other steps to tackle the underlying social problems that can lead to alcoholism.

But instead we're reminded there's no magic money tree unless votes need buying.

The only losers here are the white cider / superstrength lager producers, which can only be a good thing for society.

And "legal-high" producers will be winners.

The only losers here are the white cider / superstrength lager producers, which can only be a good thing for society.

And the big whisky distillers that sell them all their cheap shit alcohol...

I would suspect that the reason it was not done thru taxation was because the SNP do not have that power to do so.

It would be very easy to make a tax on alcohol based on the units that gave the same effect but would have to be a UK wide initiative

re wine: will it push up prices in the current 10 to 20 quid bracket? there will just be an increase across the board, no?

NOpe - all it does is set a floor below which the price cannot fall

whisky comes in at 28 units at 40%, so £14 minimum there.

beer minumum - pint, £1.15, 500ml, £1, 440ml, 90p.

We all lose out.

Only if we drink alcohol.... Which i very very rarely do. If it affects flavoured water in Tesco i may be worried.

The only losers here are the white cider / superstrength lager producers, which can only be a good thing for society.

Yep, as far as I can see the only drinks badly are affected are the ones being bought simply to get drunk (in most cases), and therefore not that different from substance abuse of other varieties.

As regards the superstength cheapo ciders - again my guess is the market for these will disappear as decent cider becomes the same price as industrial rotgut. Who would drink Frosty Jacks over say strongbow when they are the same price per unit alcohol?

Is there evidence to show that higher prices reduces alcohol addiction...?

NOpe - all it does is set a floor below which the price cannot fall

So all the cheap bottles just become a fiver and the fiver bottles stay the same? doubt that very much.

tbh, it's all a nonsense, price isn't really all that much of a factor in people getting wasted. the likes of bucky aren't even all that cheap, it's about 7 quid a bottle.

As regards the superstength cheapo ciders - again my guess is the market for these will disappear as decent cider becomes the same price as industrial rotgut. Who would drink Frosty Jacks over say strongbow when they are the same price per unit alcohol?

But they won't be the same price - the brands will price their products at a higher level. And the cheap stuff will be a bit dearer.

I'm declaring this - politicians kidding on they are doing their job.

All the alcoholics will have less money for food and bills.

Wether it will effect people who are yet to be alcoholics who would have otherwise become alcoholics I don’t know.

I remember the same wailing and gnashing of teeth when the smoking ban came about, and that's turned out not too bad...

Tbh, I'm not sure it'll really work, but I feel this country, and I mean Scotland in particular, needs something done to address our relationship with 'the swally'.

Oh, and TJ - Strongbow is 'decent' cider? 😯

Is there evidence to show that higher prices reduces alcohol addiction

Probably not but remember that this is about more than addiction, it is also meant to try and tackle the anti social and negative health effects of excessive drinking.

Frankly using economics is probably a better way of trying to nudge behaviour than anything else that is available.

@Nobeer - I remember being in Dublin with work about a year after the Irish introduced a smoking ban. Even in that short period there were noticeable health benefits.

The attitude to alcohol of a significant proportion of the UK's population is not going to be solved by a single solution. In the same way that there's a hardcore minority who continue to smoke there'll be a large number who will continue to misuse alcohol but they should be the exception rather than the norm.

Is there evidence to show that higher prices reduces alcohol addiction...?

No there isn't. As someone who has an alcoholic in the (extended) family I know that it will mean less money to spend on the essentials. Complete and utter bollocks. Education is the way to go not increasing the cost.

wrightyson - Member

More nanny state bollocks!

[img] [/img]

I don't think expensive toilet water is really the solution to alocoholism! 😆

Probably not but remember that this is about more than addiction, it is also meant to try and tackle the anti social and negative health effects of excessive drinking.

Then They should make the pubs and bars landlords responsible for having drunk people on there premises like they used to be and then they would not serve people who were already legless then turning them out on the streets to be a problem for our struggling police forces and nhs

No there isn't. As someone who has an alcoholic in the (extended) family I know that it will mean less money to spend on the essentials. Complete and utter bollocks. Education is the way to go not increasing the cost.

Education? who in their right mind doesn't realise alcoholism isn't a good place to be?.

As said earlier, it's not really designed to sort out acute alcoholism, but the social bingers who are at the start of that path.

I think.

I wonder if it'll be cheaper to shop at B&Q?

re wine: will it push up prices in the current 10 to 20 quid bracket? there will just be an increase across the board, no?

Minimum pricing isn't an increased tax as far as I understand. It just sets the legal minimum limit per unit. That extra cost doesn't get passed on to the government coffers.

whitestone - Member
@Nobeer - I remember being in Dublin with work about a year after the Irish introduced a smoking ban. Even in that short period there were noticeable health benefits.

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the smoking reduction looks to have been a long concerted effort

interesting the alcohol consumption graph.

[img] [/img]

i've always thought the pubs etc were much busier late 90s. early 2000s.

Oh, and TJ - Strongbow is 'decent' cider?

dunno - I don't drink cider but surely its better than frosty jacks

I think its aimed in a few ways. Kids with a fiver who want to get drunk, binge drinkers and alcoholics. the first of those it will certainly stoip. The second maybe. Not sure it will do much for the 3rd category but it might

I a fairly sure this was well thought out plan based on research not just an bright idea / knee jerk reaction

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Alcohol/minimum-pricing

*polishes up moonshine still*

20p a unit to you mate, but you ain’t seen me, right?

That extra cost doesn't get passed on to the government coffers.

I believe there's evidence that supermarkets are usingg cheap alcohol as a loss leader too, just to entice folk into the shop.