I WAS disappointed to read in an otherwise excellent editorial (“A minimum alcohol unit cost is a price worth paying", The Herald, June 8) the phrase "how committed the drinks industry is to protecting it". This would seem to imply that the drinks industry in Scotland as a whole is opposed to minimum pricing. This is not true.
Most of the big players in the drinks industry in Scotland support this policy, it is the Scotch Whisky Association which has mounted the legal challenges which have seen this policy "mired in legal argument".
The leading trade organisation, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, which represents the people who sell alcohol on their premises, has long advocated for the adoption of minimum pricing. Surely now is the time to restore some respect for alcohol and stop it being used as a loss leader in major supermarkets.
Alcohol should not be just another "pile it high, sell it cheap” commodity.
William Gold,
President, Strathclyde area, Scottish Licensed Trade Association,
Canning Street, Edinburgh.
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