How to Legislate for a National Boozing Problem
With difficulty. As with most things the easy answer for successive governments has been to increase tax but continual increases don’t seem to prevent our towns and cities being kebab strewn and awash with puke every Sunday.
In a bid to alleviate some of the booze culture north of the border, Scottish ministers have been campaigning for minimum pricing of alcohol. Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland has described Scotland’s alcohol consumption rates as “staggering ” …
With difficulty. As with most things the easy answer for successive governments has been to increase tax but continual increases don’t seem to prevent our towns and cities being kebab strewn and awash with puke every Sunday.
In a bid to alleviate some of the booze culture north of the border, Scottish ministers have been campaigning for minimum pricing of alcohol. Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association in Scotland has described Scotland’s alcohol consumption rates as “staggering ” (double entendre unintended we suspect) which puts them a notch above England’s, described at the high end as "hazardous ".
On the day the Scottish Parliament unveiled its new Alcohol Bill, BrewDog, a niche Scottish brewery also unveiled its latest creation: Tactical Nuclear Penguin, a 32% alcohol beer. According to the BBC a warning on the label states: "This is an extremely strong beer; it should be enjoyed in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance. In exactly the same manner that you would enjoy a fine whisky, a Frank Zappa album or a visit from a friendly yet anxious ghost." Okey dokey.
This of course got the anti-booze lobby rather excitable – Jack Law, of Alcohol Focus Scotland, described it as a "cynical marketing ploy" and said: "We want to know why a brewer would produce a beer almost as strong as whisky." Opportunist marketing maybe? It’s doubtful Tactical Nuclear Penguin is aimed at the White Lightning crowd and it probably won’t really appeal to the average Carling drinker either, so Mr Law walked into the trap and gave their publicity the desired oxygen.
The Scots may be prepared to give this policy a go but, in the end, will changes to the law will ever be enough to get a grip of our alcohol obsession? Let’s face it, some people are even quite proud of our national drinking ability. Ironically for Mr Law, if more drinkers bought the BrewDog message to enjoy their alcohol "in small servings and with an air of aristocratic nonchalance" rather than drinking to the point they do things like peeing on war memorials it would make his job a lot easier.
