KENNY MacAskill writes sincerely about the requirement for minimum unit pricing (MUP) of alcohol (“Why I hope public welfare will prevail over drink profits”, The Herald, July 25). However, does he not take history into consideration? Where alcohol was banned during prohibition period in the United States the public took to alternative measures to ensure that their needs were satisfied. Does he not remember not so long ago when “booze cruises” to continental Europe were the fashion? People will not be dictated to by well-meaning governments. Before we know it our police force will be stretched further ensuring that a criminal element do not make their fortunes through cheap, and potentially lethal, substitutes or via smuggling.
When I buy a pint of beer in a standard pub the retail cost appears to be around £3. I often wonder what costs are involved in producing that pint and the cost relating to other products. As far as I can tell the charge for that pint of beer, predominantly water, is approximately four times the cost of an equivalent volume of petrol. Now we normally moan about the cost of petrol, with all the related government taxation. yet the profit on beer must vastly outweigh that on petrol?
There is no doubt that something needs to be done regarding alcohol abuse, but this must be accomplished via education, not through pricing; alternatives will always be found.
As Ray Winston says in his gambling advertisement “ ... and I gamble responsibly”, I in turn say “…..and I drink responsibly”. Why are like-minded people to be penalised for the irresponsible few?
Stewart Lightbody,
10 Yorke Road, Troon.
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