Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Surely an opportunity for white van owners to smuggle cheaper booze over the border from England?
Another huge issue I have with nanny state trying to influence behaviour of any type is it always seems to come in the form of price rises.
This means that the rich can continue to smoke, drink, drive their smog belching 5 litre 4x4's into the London congestion zone, buy sugary drinks for their kids etc etc but it is the poor who are the only ones to be financially forced into compliance with nanny.... In effect it's "one rule for the rich and another for the poor" as usual ...
Yes
That's obviously not correct e.g. ISAs, mobility/insulation/energy saving schemes, subsidies for park and ride schemes, etc.
You have an intriguingly loose relationship with the complexities of reality.
Surely the people who drink 7% Cider and Skol/Kestrel Super strength lagers etc are alcoholics, they're not going to stop drinking because the unit price has gone up, they'll just find a cheaper/worse alternative.
Cheers BB
What about those who drink Belgian beer of the same strength, since there might be one or two on here? (although obviously more expensive!)
Do enlighten us then, oh wise one, as to how reality differs from the rich being able to buy their full fat duty paid Benson and Hedges, drink their expensive booze and pay £10 a day to take their gas guzzlers into central London etc "business as normal" with little encumbrance from mere trifles such as huge amounts of duty.... whilst the poor have to buy duty free cheapo fags, which are sometimes fake and most unhealthy, can't afford to take their old car into London (a form of "financial cleansing"... price the oiks out of even driving into that London eh?) and are now being threatened with their cheap tipple being made less affordable whilst the wealthy get blotto on Bolly....
We can all quote only those damn lies and statistics which seem to bolster our own argument of course...
If you're on £100K a year then paying an extra £2 here or extra £20 there makes **** all difference to you but if you're unemployed, on disability benefits or whatever then you are one of the very few, already at the bottom of the heap, who will be affected by these "for your own good" nanny state impositions.
Or maybe (I don't know) you're a Daily Heil reading tory scum bag brexshitter who thinks such people should be put in workhouses? That even fake tabs and dodgy cider are "luxuries" they don't deserve? That if they're somehow managing to keep a 20 year old Escort Popular on the road then they're being paid too much already, never mind them having the opportunity to go into our capital city for an extra £10 fee they can't afford?
Thing is, the Belgian beers, and anything approaching a quality tipple, are already priced above the threshold anyway. This is intended to price the cheap, gut rot alky specials out of the market and I'm in favour of that. Those products only exist to supply the problem drinker market, a cynical and immoral exploitation which should be abhorred, even if you don't think the move will have the desired effect.The people who drink the Belgian Beers could probably afford the extra cost, I don't think 'problem' drinkers are buying it.
Cheers BB
Surely an opportunity for white van owners to smuggle cheaper booze over the border from England?
Like they will spend it on quinoa instead?Bearing in mind it’s the poorest who have the worst health, it seems like a good idea to try to price them out of excessive drinking.