Polly Toynbee (yes, Polly Pot as she was so amusingly named last week, by, I think, Bunny) meets, but manages to avoid talking about, both race and economics today.

This is an age-old
discourse. Is Britain uniquely uncouth in our filthy drinking habits,
or do our peculiarly restrictive laws cause the desperate
drink-to-get-drunk-quick mentality? Why, oh why, can’t we be more
Italian? Take away the urgency and mystery, and maybe we could all
tipple a little nip in the coffee without making a fetish of alcohol.
It was a reasonable proposition. After all, why are we – and our Viking
neighbours to the north – such drunken sots compared to the
Mediterraneans?

Well, could it be that there are racial differences between Northern Europeans and Southern? Something more than just cultural differences? Anyone who’s looked at the subject of alcoholism knows that there are huge differences across racial groups…but of course we won’t mention that in the Grauniad now will we? Sweden, with highly restrictive laws and a famously egalitarian society has the same problems we do while a highly stratified yet highly liberal in terms of access (the drinking age is 16) society like Portugal does not.
There is also this:

But worst of all, it doesn’t do the one thing that works – raise the tax.

One problem with raising tax on booze….we are part of the European Union. Raise domestic levels of taxation and we will simply see more people on booze cruises, substituting drinking in the street for drinking in pubs. And no, there is no solution to this problem, for the freedom to purchase booze abroad is, as part of the free movement of goods, a fundamental part of the European adventure. If you wish to raise the price of booze in the UK  in reality, rather than just raise the tax rate (ie, can note that domestic tax rates are no longer the determinant of the street price of booze) then you have to agree to our leaving the EU. Fine by me but not what I think Polly would actually want.

Interesting that when Ms. Toynbee comes across a story that illustrates, is influenced by, two of her pet subjects, race and culture and the way in which we should be more European, she doesn’t actually manage to note the way in which the story is influenced by them.

Update, as below, ’twas the other Scott at Daily Ablution. Who, if you enjoy seeing varied Indy and Grauniad writers torn limb from limb, does a much better job than I do.