Reflections on a Friday Night

Well today has been long and involved. First of all 6 hours of lecturing followed by various interviews about alcohol followed by catching up with some of the stories on the news.

The Government apparently is going to consult about the minimum price of alcohol. I doubt that very much. This policy has been rushed out to avoid the obvious embarrassment that the so called Granny Tax has caused in Georgey Boy's budget. Also it is an olive branch to the hospitals and physicians who were castrated by the health bill.

Here's a question. How many OAP's enjoy a bottle of sherry or wine at home? Are they down the pub? So add the extra price created my minimum pricing onto the already frozen personal allowances and rise in fuel duty, couple that with the loss in disability benefits and the rising cost of home care and you hit pensioners every which way.

Now what about those raging alcoholics?  If they can no longer afford their drinks will they steal, or will they turn to meths again? Or hand wash in the hospitals?

And the young ones. Why spend £20 on two or three pints when Johnny drug dealer will sell you a line of coke for that price?

This minimum price of alcohol was designed to get people thinking away from the budget. Does the Prime Minister really think that we are stupid. I said that the Government would claw back the losses through alcohol and I think I am going to be proven right. After all I'm long enough to remember when we doubled the rate of spirit duty to pay off the loan we had from the IMF back in the early eighties.

This Government no more wants to consult about alcohol as I want to go skinny dipping in a pool of crocodiles. This Government thinks it is bigger than the electorate. If it believed Labour was using nanny state policies then this is the biggest of them all.

Education now to our children, education now to our parents and inspire people to give up binge drinking for prohibition never worked.......unless of course you were Al Capone!