A couple of months ago, for some reason lost in the mists of time, I produced a graph of the cost of getting lashed. Since it’s back in the news I thought it would be a good idea to see where the “50p per unit” minimum price would be against the cost per ml I calculated for a range of booze advertised online by the big supermarkets (including offers).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7944334.stm

Quite shockingly the 50p number put forward by the medical officer chappy is higher than the vast majority drinks available not just a few bottles of industrial byproduct alcohol with an apple passed across it.

clicky for bigger better resolution picture

Stoner – Member

Quite shockingly the 50p number put forward by the medical officer chappy is higher than the vast majority drinks available not just a few bottles of industrial byproduct alcohol with an apple passed across it.

Why the shock? I though that was the whole point?

(on a side note, the Scottish Govt. are already proposing this and have been told by UK civil servants that the plan is illegal as it falls foul of some EU law. Be interesting to see if they now change their minds 🙄 )

Oh – and interesting choice of colours for that graph. It reminds me of a certain supermarket value brand 😀

shocking in that I would normally assume that it would be a half arsed figure just above White Lightning and thunderbirds.

Not to mention the line lies above such well known wino fodder as Harvey’s Bristol Cream and Cockburns 🙂

Oh – and interesting choice of colours for that graph. It reminds me of a certain supermarket value brand

Excel default. 🙂

its not just the cheep stuff that’ll go up in price, if asda vaue cider goes up then strongbow will go up further to differentiate it. And bullmers etc will go up even higher.

Then again we were somehow manageing to get through £20 on a round of three drinks last night!

If you take, say, a bottle of wine at 11% ABV, 75cl, comes out at a little over 8ml of alcohol, or minimum price of £4. For a fuller 13.5% wine it will be £5. Since I rarely spend less than say £6.50 on a bottle of wine (if I do buy it in the UK rather than bring my own bike) because I can afford to and also because I choose not to drink cheap wine of which only 50p of the price has gone into the production the “tarriff” has no effect on me. But on those who do not have the choice of more expensive wines the cost of their evenings will increase. Its certainly not what youd call a “progressive tax”, is it?

In pubs though, beers I think wont be effected nearly as much. A 4.5% pint (whether it’s Foster’s Dishwater or Wye Valley’s HPA Drink of the Gods) would command a minimum price of about £1.20 – I cant remember the last time I saw a pint less than £1.50 of either I think its an irrelevance to most beer drinkers.

And a shot of spirit would be around 50p minimum!

So the price of the upper end ones like WKD etc isnt likely to fall, we are going to end up simply bringing up the lower lot and maintaining the price of the others? Because it seems to me that the thing most of your yoofs go out and get smashed on (WKD, smirnoff, ciders etc) fall above the line already, the 50p/unit cut-off only seems to affect the really budget cheapy drinks such as you might use a) as a mixer for your own delight at home or b) that alcoholics would buy for the cheapest fix. Now personally I dont like having to pay because other people can’t control themselves, surely it’s better to help them directly than hit everyone with a tax?

Sounds good to me, insofar as none of the drinks I drink would be affected 🙂
Plus it might slow to the loss of pubs, though I suspect that’s wishful thinking.

80 Lidl tea bags 32p … sorted, no sign of a price rise 😀

So yet again the responsible majority have to pay more because of the irresponsible minority.