To worry about the poor alcoholics in Scotland

[jnfrrss]

the cheap ciders in 3l bottles have gone up three fold in price overnight with nothing done to actually help people that are dependent.

Surely this is going to cause a lot of pain in the immediate future? Seems very irresponsible to just do this in isolation without having some way to help people

Somebody who drinks cheap cider or buckfast will fine the extra for cheap cider and Buckfast regardless this tax imo is just putting a plaster over a problem.

Meal deals are allowed apparently as the argument is that the food is discounted/free not the alcohol. As said before a bottle of wine will cost approx £4.50 so the food will be the discounted to the balance.

Was speaking to someone I know through work and he sadly stated, "more weans will be going hungry now", I think this is valid and may well be one effect of the increased price per unit.

I think he was probably right C4

I am married to a recovering alcoholic, there are alcoholics right through my family. I wish alcohol could be completely banned. It's a drug and a dangerous one. I don't drink at all.

However I realise people can and do drink responsibly so it's unlikely alcohol will ever be banned. From my experience of alcoholics, they will go without food to get alcohol. However if alcohol is more expensive it could in theory prevent people getting addicted as much. Like with smoking now so expensive, it's not as easy to start.

OP I'm glad you highlighted this as I had no idea the higher price was just going in the retailer pocket.

I feel like this is a very compassionless thing to say, and I am sure someone will come up with a good argument against it - but isn't someone who preferentially buys alcohol rather than feeding their kids the very definition of an unfit parent? I mean, should they really have kids in their care at all?

For those who don't think this is a good idea, how would you go about reducing the alcoholism levels in Scotland? Genuine question.

I remember as a teenager loads of people getting off they're face on white lightning, it was less than two quid and I earnt more than that per day doing a paper round! Cue the joys of underage pregnancy, violence, antisocial behaviour, vomiting in the street, and people routinely being taken to hospital for alcohol poisoning. Not much has changed on the estate where I grew up. Hopefully it will help change the culture around cheap booze and excess consumption. Really don't see as many teenagers smoking nowadays where it was really normal when I was younger. I'm assuming due to cost.

They will go back to Meths or anti freeze , or home brew.

I think this is probably a good start to stop people getting to a problem drinking stage, but having been brought up by an alcoholic I know he put drink before bills, food and clothes for his kids. My worry is for children who are being brought up now by parents who put their need for drink ahead of their kids needs. Those kids who have little now are likely to be getting less. What we can do about that, I have no idea...

Bejazzled nope. Not going to get into an anti SNP arguement on Mumsnet thanks. Plenty of oil left and some new oil has even been discovered. Oil was only part of the picture anyway. Irrelevant now because the vote was No.

We have problems with booze, it's a good thing to try, and comes on the advice of experts who've been lobbying for years. Word is the Tories want to try the same thing in England but are waiting to see how this goes (they contemplated introducing something similar during Cameron's era).

They are an oil rich country with the hugely beneficial Barnett formula so they have the money but yet the NHS there seems in a terrible state.

Well, we don't get the oil AND the Barnett formula. The oil revenue goes to London and to Anglo-American oil companies. The Barnett formula allegedly compensates us a little for not keeping any of the oil and gas money, but not much. But, anyway, the NHS in Scotland is in a great state compared to yours down there. Don't believe everything you hear about us in the Daily Mail and BBC. NHS Scotland outperforms NHS England in almost everything, and isn't being privatized so will cost less going forward.

Its true that when i was young you could only buy it in off licences or in a pub - a few newsagents might have had some dusty bottles but most people i knew their parents didnt drink at all or went out to drink.

I think nothing of putting a few bottles of wine or beer in with the weekly shop even though this has eased off with the amount i buy a lot over last few years as the cost has gone up, so maybe a bottle a week. still another 6 - 8 pounds on the shopping. if it went up to 10 or 15 a bottle i wouldnt bother at all. I am guessing it will go the way of cigarettes and be put away behind bars or a screen in the future - next thing will be food thats bad for you behind bars or banned altogether.

I live in Scotland and I am in favour of trying this. Hardline alcoholics won’t change, but there are a lot of drunken folk clogging up A&E on a Saturday night. If some people get less drunk because they can’t afford it, then A&E will be less slammed, and cash will be freed up for social care interventions/programmes designed to help alcoholics and their families.

Are pub prices going up too, or is it just supermarkets and off licenses?

I was under the impression it was to target young drinkers which is surely a good thing as well as alcoholics. Still they might just move on to Buckfast now as it has not been affected. Frosty Jacks and the like are horrible gut rotting beverages.

I’ve not RTFT but I wish I lived in Berwick. I could buy loads of booze, drive a few miles and sell it for a lovely profit.

They’ve not thought this through have they?

I think this is valuable if only for its effect on teenagers. Previously you could buy 14 units of cheap cider for 2.50 - that’s just asking for trouble. For the person who said “they’ll switch to spirits instead” the whole point is that all alcohol will have exactly the same minimum price per unit regardless of type, so you no longer have the anomaly of grim industrial “cider” being so much cheaper than any other alcohol.

Whilst England doesn’t have minimum pricing by the way, a lot of areas have informal agreements by shopkeepers with police not to sell this stuff in an attempt either to dissuade street drinkers from hanging around or to keep them alive for another couple of years depending on how cynical you are feeling. We have a lot of off licences and supermarkets in my area but there isn’t anywhere that will sell you a two litre plastic bottle of white lightning for miles around.

Won’t people just travel south and stock up like the old-fashioned booze cruises?

They might stock up on vodka, yes, but White Lightning etc, which is the main target of this law, is only appealing to a very particular demographic, most of whom don’t have driving licences.

I was astounded that buckfast was not included in the price hike it is bloody loony juice !

The coach companies could cash in with a ‘special trip to a southern supermarket’ tour!

Street drinkers will just buy cans of cider or dragon soop

Are pub prices going up too, or is it just supermarkets and off licenses

It's 50p a unit across the board. I doubt you can find a pub selling a single measure of spirits, small glass of wine or a half pint of beer for 50p so it isn't really relevant to the pub sector.