Politicians have an important role to play in fight against alcohol abuse

Andrew McKie makes the valid points that most problems stem from individual judgments, decisions and behaviours and that the tools available to governments – regulation, taxation and legislation – are weak in relation to solving the problems arising from our alcohol-saturated culture "We must fix our attitude to alcohol, not its price", The Herald, December 26).

But his article offers no insight into how Scots are expected to do this. Do we all just wake up one morning crying "I see the light!" and society is transformed?

Blaming the individual absolves the rest of us from responsibility. But we all form judgments and make decisions in social and economic environments shaped by commercial and elite interests. Often these environmental signals resonate strongly with us since, by design, they align with our basic need for social acceptance, recognition and status. The tools available to our politicians may be weak, but at least they provide an element of counterbalance to these other signals.

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