A bright new future? Hardly

And so the Government committee on science on technology makes another statement on alcohol. And what have they said that's new? Well nothing really. It's the same old people banging on about the same old things all over again. And there lies the problem.

We are still living in a world where the alcohol industry say's one thing and the people wanting controls are saying another thing. They are not getting to the heart of the problem and I doubt if they will ever get to the heart of the problem. Why? because it's all about the money.

The Alcohol Industry effectively brings in billions of pounds of taxation revenue in one form and another for the Government. And that is not just the direct tax on alcohol but all the bits and pieces of tax that add up in the tax chain that make up the final price that you pay. And then there are the detractors who are funded generally directly or indirectly by the same Government. You can rock the boat therefor but not too much hence all he mixed messages about booze.

Is alcohol bad for you, well yes it is. After all the reason why we believe alcohol came about was a defence mechanism by yeast to other competitive or predatory organisms.

How bad is it for you? We don't know and the only way we will find out is if we conduct a series of experiments that will ultimately kill or injure human beings. Thank goodness for medical ethics.

Plato said it best when he said "Man should not drink until he is 18 then only moderately until he is 40 when he should immediately stop" Now Plato lived in a world where observation came first not physiology yet he seemed to know a thing or two about booze.

What is a safe limit? We don't know this either as this requires alcohol to be a precise science and that is clearly not true.

The whole subject of alcohol is so scientifically complex that at the end of the day we know not that much more for certain than we did when ancient Mesopotamians first brought it to our society.

However we can change patterns and we know that psychology plays a vitally important part in that particular challenge. Not further studies by academics in ivory towers but by clear concise and simple education about what alcohol is and what it does and why we rely so heavily on it in our society.

Teach people to break the emotional connection that they have with alcohol. Show them how to stop playing the alcohol blame game and give them the ability to make honest decisions about their future relationship with the so called demon drink.

Carol Vorderman recently called for financial education in our schools. Well I call and have been calling for years for proper alcohol education in schools.

I today challenged David Cameron on live radio to knock on my door and talk to me about alcohol, me an ordinary bloke with a mere 30 years experience in dealing with alcohol issues. I did it because of something I have learned.

All it takes for evil to succeed is for one good man not to stand up

I have spent most of my time working quietly helping people to change their lives if they want to. I am fed up of people with vested interests setting out guidelines or giving out messages because it makes a good sound byte. We can change our habits and we can enjoy alcohol but we need to have total impartial and independent education so that people understand why and how.

And we need it now