Minimum price of alcohol in Scotland rises by 30%

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2d2kdgzeo

Posted by particlegun

19 Comments

  1. If they announce similar in England I’m going to be pissed (well less often now, you know angry).

  2. This doesn’t stop alcoholism. It’s been a failure so far, with Scotland’s alcohol related deaths only rising since the original price per unit increase. It will just increase the rate of shoplifting and push alcoholics to take more measures to obtain it, like theft. It could also increase the amount of people drinking alcohol not meant for consumption, like paint thinner.

    It’s just an excuse to further tax plebs like you and I, with only the cheapest alcohol really being affected.

    If you want to actually address alcoholism, maybe work on the things in society that drive people to it. Like mental health issues, child services, wage stagnation, attainable housing, education, homelessness, youth projects… But that would be a lot of work I guess. Much easier to charge £20 for a bottle of vodka then say you’ve tried your best.

  3. In spite of all the evidence showing it’s had no effect whatsoever on levels of alcoholism or disorder.

  4. MousseCareless3199 on

    Sorry plebs, we’re going to make it harder for you to enjoy some of the few pleasures that you have.

  5. Longjumping_Stand889 on

    Whether it works or not it’s a depressing thing to hear on a wet Monday morning in (almost) October.

  6. Visible_Account7767 on

    If prisoners can make prison hooch with juice and bread for yeast, they best start increasing the price of anything with sugar in and anything with yeast in

    Or better yet, stop taxing the less fortunate and start addressing the real issues… 

    Edit: I don’t understand why this is getting down voted. If they keep pricing cheap alcohol out of affordability people will start buying illegal imports or home brew moonshine… What’s so hard to understand? Ever heard of prohibition and Al capone??? 

  7. In line with inflation after a freeze – aye, right, whatever.

    But still won’t tackle the issue in any effective manner. It’s already been proven that problem drinkers can’t be priced out of their habit. They just spend money that would be otherwise used for food/essentials/bills/childcare on alcohol. Alcohol abuse is a sociocultural issue, and soft prohibition doesn’t tackle that.

    It also unfairly punishes non-problem drinkers. I haven’t bought beers from the supermarket or offies for a long time. I order them all online direct from the breweries in England.

  8. MathCharacter3313 on

    This will do nothing to stop alcoholism.

    When I was in active addiction, if I couldn’t afford it, I would’ve stolen it. Or drunk hand sanitiser. But hey.

  9. newnortherner21 on

    I think it should be such that drinking in a pub is a cheaper option than supermarket booze. Not several times more in cost.

  10. averagesophonenjoyer on

    Is Scotland on some kind of authoritarian speedrun? 

    This combined with needing licensing for air guns is ridiculous.

  11. It doesn’t have any effect, just a way to tax the casual drinker more. 

    Also off topic but did you know you can get alcoholic Honey Bees? They pretend to leave the hive to gather nectar each morning but they instead the find the nearest orchard and drink rotting fermented fruit instead. 

  12. Pretty sure this will just make alcoholics poorer which will only increase their stress in life and give them more of a reason to drink lol

  13. I don’t drink or smoke but I feel making both these things so highly priced that they’re unobtainable is not the way to go

    If people make a choice to stop then that’s massively stronger than the nanny state forcing you to stop. Being forced causes discontent and unnecessary non-compliance whether that’s stealing, black market, crossing the border etc

  14. Solid-Education5735 on

    Price controls don’t fucking work. When will the Scots stop punching the self in the face

  15. As a Scot, this is a policy I take huge issue with. Not because of the why but the what, none of the increased revenue is taken into a public pot to help fund prevention projects. It’s just a license for retailers to charge more and therefore increase their profit margin on alcohol sales.

    It’s an open goal to do something good and the SNP have fumbled it big style.

  16. Yay unregulated counterfeit booze!

    Who cares when they can make some extra tax cash 🤦‍♂️

  17. I honestly don’t think minimum unit pricing has worked. Antisocial drinking and alcohol related health problems and deaths in scotland are still high.

     There’s been a bit if a drop with young people which we’ve seen in other parts of the UK without minimum pricing.

    Anecdotally, getting rid of “buy one get on free” type offers had a bigger effect.

    To make a person who’s hellbent on getting pissed think twice you’d have to charge far, far more than 65p per unit…..by which time you would have upset the vast majority of adults who drink responsibly and created a perfect environment for a black-market to thrive.

    It was always a silly policy.