England urged to bring in minimum unit price on alcohol as deaths rise 10% a year

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/05/england-urged-to-bring-in-minimum-unit-price-on-alcohol-as-deaths-rise-10-a-year

Posted by JayR_97

33 Comments

  1. Minimum unit pricing doesn’t stop the hardcore alcoholics. They’ll just keep buying it even though it’s more expensive and resort to more desperate measures to get their next fix (theft, dodgy homebrews ect ..)

  2. denyer-no1-fan on

    >A report by the Lancet last year found minimum unit pricing in Scotland was associated with a 13.4% reduction in deaths wholly attributable to alcohol consumption. Public Health Scotland said there was no clear evidence of substantial negative impacts on the alcoholic drinks industry.

    If it works in Scotland, seems sensible to introduce it in England. Reducing alcohol harm is good for everyone.

  3. JudasPreist1999 on

    it doesn’t work and its based on a complete lie, that this would only affect hard drinkers and not everyone, it does affect everyone , and its regressive

  4. CurtisInCamden on

    The price disparity between supermarkets and pubs has gotten ridiculous and so hopefully this might reverse the decline of the pub/hospitality industry. Prices in pubs/bars/restaurants have at least doubled (even tripled sometimes) over the past 20 years, but at my local big-name supermarket I can buy a 4 pack of own-brand beer for under £3, slightly cheaper than 20 years ago (vastly cheaper after inflation).

  5. Why should normal people be forced to pay higher prices just because of a minority who can’t control themselves?

  6. Worldly_Table_5092 on

    500% tax chocolate, 500% tax cigs, 500% tax booze. Maximum health. 0 fun allowed.

  7. Maybe it’s not the alcohol but what has pushed 10% more to drink it to excess. Like government induced austerity, cutting public services, and cost of living crysis, probably 100s of examples why more people are trying to numb the pain.

  8. humblevessell on

    Alcohol is already way more expensive here than in France, Germany and many other countries this is ridiculous.

  9. Nanny state. The fraction of a percent of people have no control over themselves and it impacts the rest of us. Europeans have beers stronger than ours at a cheaper price.

  10. SharpEssay5991 on

    If raising the price of alcohol worked, it would’ve worked in Turkey. People who can afford it will continue to buy and drink and people who can’t afford turn to cheaper and more harmful drugs.

  11. Trust me, price doesn’t do anything unless you made it £100 a bottle. Alcoholics will spend all the money they have if they can afford it, it’s the same with any addiction, price does not factor into their reasoning for purchasing it.

    Alcohol is super expensive in Finland due to taxes and they still have a big alcohol problem.

  12. Ok-Importance-6815 on

    if you raise the price of alcohol people will just stop buying their kids vegetables

  13. TouristPuzzled2169 on

    We drink ourselves to death because its so very very shit to live here NOT because booze is too cheap.

  14. Don’t put a minimum price as that only benefits the seller, put more tax on it so that the extra money is taken as tax rather than profit for the few.

  15. Thebritishdovah on

    If someone wants to get pissed, they will get pissed. I knew an alcoholic who could barely walk and would beg taxi drivers to get him booze from the local shop.

    Price won’t deter them. It does punish everyone else. I rarely drink and paying a minimum based on units would likely make it too dam expensive to get wankered once a month at a wrestling show. It’s the one thing I look forward to and getting wankered is a side effect of having a good time.

  16. Another veiled reason to increase taxes. Surely all these rises in death rates over the decades, used by politicians as low hanging fruit, must add up to 110% guaranteed death from drinking any kind of alcohol.
    Considering the prices are as high because of previous numbers drinking themselves to death, then that system must not be working in fact previous price rises have been part in a 10% rise In people drinking themselves to death.

  17. Soulless--Plague on

    I’ve seen people drink hand sanitiser. This won’t stop people if they are alcoholics

  18. Apez_in_Space on

    Pubs and bars tend to have staff that’ll kick out or stop serving people if they get too drunk (obviously not always but we’re talking about deaths from alcohol abuse here). Here’s an idea: reduce tariffs at bars whilst increasing at shops and supermarkets. Do something to preserve our pubs as a benefit for tackling the problem at the source.

  19. It’s national pastime culture, why does everything have to be bloody ruined and changed in this country?

  20. Making life less shitty in general helps keep the death rate down. Putting prices up doesn’t help with that at all and only makes things worse.

  21. Honorable_Dead_Snark on

    They’ll do anything rather than legalise cannabis won’t they? Despite some research in the states and Canada showing a link to decreased alcohol sales and lower rates of alcohol use disorder. 

  22. Ok_Annual3581 on

    Yes! Why address our poor mental health support, or the atrocious costs of living, failing housing/nhs etc, when you can slap 10% on alcohol to ‘avoid deaths’. It’s laughable they think this won’t just have a further impact on crime rates etc.

  23. WanderingLemon25 on

    I’d rather we invested money & time as a nation considering why people resort to alcohol rather than just putting another tax on people who are already at rock bottom. 

    People resort to alcohol/drugs because life is that miserable working 40 hours a week for faceless corporations who suck everything they can from the system, exploit people everywhere they can and reward the top 0.1% excessively rather than fairly across the board, all while trying to get away with paying as little tax as possible leading to poor community services, high crime rates to pay for things and depressing places to live. 

    If only politicians/thinktanks gave a fuck about any of this rather than how do we suck even more from people.

    Sickening

  24. Pizzagoessplat on

    Fuxk no.

    If they’re going to do it is should be for products over 10% or something on those lines.

    Currently live in Ireland whee we have it and I buy a bottle of vodka instead of a case of beer because it’s cheaper!!!

  25. Fuck off, it’s already expensive enough. Maybe make life in general less miserable and people wouldn’t drink themselves to death. All this kind of shit does is make it even more miserable for the average person seeing more and more of the few little pleasures we have left getting priced out of our reach.

  26. All the ‘anti-anything fun or enjoyable’ losers will be out in force on this thread. Miserable fucks.

  27. Tricky_Reporter_2269 on

    Perhaps its a symptom of helplessness/hoplessness a lot of people are feeling these days?