THE perpetual alcohol debate in Scotland grinds on. Pricing, advertising, information and availability are worthy topics, but political leadership is entirely absent when it comes to the central point.
The heart of the problem is cultural. As long as drunkenness is socially acceptable, the pain, damage, fear and cost caused by it will continue. It’s not just a matter of personal risk assessment, it’s a matter of responsibility to family, friends, neighbours, wider society, the emergency services and the tax payer.
There might be some value in tinkering with pricing and advertising restrictions, but political leadership should not just be about the nuts and bolts of policy.
I’m not proposing any more stringent laws against drunkenness, but I am willing to say that it’s not OK to get drunk – and the more widely held that view becomes, the better a society we will be.
Richard Lucas,
Leader of the Scottish Family Party, 272 Bath Street, Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel