Tim Worstall

Torygraph Leader

For all the paper’s sometime moments of clarity, there really is something very Tory, old school such, about it at times:

The ease with which youngsters nowadays can get their hands on alcohol
is a serious concern. Supermarkets that sell beer more cheaply than
water should consider the implications of this pricing policy.

Supermarkets that sell booze to the underage already face severe penalties, so it’s not that. But what should the consider about their pricing policies? That they’re ripping off those who buy water? That in a market prices are set by supply and demand? That they are failing in their social duty by allowing the hoi poloi to drink? And who in buggery ever thought that supermarkets have a social duty?

In

14 responses

  1. Philip Thomas Avatar
    Philip Thomas

    I’m going to go absolutely apeshit if my party starts pushing for supermarkets to rack up their prices on booze. It’s one of the few means of affordable drinking. It seems every month, some spokesman for a pub association (perhaps the DT Leader’s got some deal going) complains about the irresponsibility of supermarkets and their cheap booze.
    There is a very large but silent majority that complain about the rising costs of pints in pubs. Competition from supermarkets seems to be one of the few things keeping it clear of obstructing flight paths.
    Besides that, pubs can hardly take the moral high ground. Consider:
    “Supermarkets that sell beer more cheaply than water should consider the implications of this pricing policy.”
    Exchange “Supermarkets” for “Pubs” and “water” for “coke”.

    Reply
  2. Justin Avatar
    Justin

    The idea that you can price somebody out of drinking is ridiculous – they’ll just look for cheaper ways to get pissed until they’re drinking god knows what.
    It’s the same with cigarettes. I gave up smoking not because it was bankrupting me but because I read some truly terrifying articles about lung cancer and decided I didn’t fancy it.
    Now all I need is to read about what all this cheap Stella is doing to me. Putting seven pence on a can isn’t going to put me off.
    (And if life in this country was less shitty, fewer people would feel the need to be arseholed at every opportunity.)

    Reply
  3. john b Avatar
    john b

    Meanwhile you have bansturbators like that police idiot this morning suggesting that the best way to control underage drinking is, err, to raise the drinking age to 21.
    Not only an outrageous imposition on the liberty of *adults* aged 18-20, but guaranteed to have the opposite effect to the one intended (can’t drink in a pub, where there’s a modicum of control? drink in the streets instead!)

    Reply
  4. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    “drink in the streets instead!”
    The bansturbator thought of that: he wants drinking in public banned too.
    Given this ban is almost inevitable (“triangulation on Tory voters, Son of the Manse, reconsider, blah blah”), and the police are being driven by ludicrous Government targets, let me predict it will be al fresco diners that get their collars felt first.

    Reply
  5. Justin Avatar
    Justin

    There’s already a ban in Brighton. Want a bottle of wine with that picnic on the beach? Risk the fine.

    Reply
  6. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    “Want a bottle of wine with that picnic on the beach? Risk the fine.”
    Miserable bastards. Why a blanket ban? The other towns doing this are “after a policeman has told you to stop drinking” which means that it’s only illegal after your behaviour has become a problem, which permits a quiet picnic or barbecue (assuming that the policeman has common sense and discretion).

    Reply
  7. Philip Thomas Avatar
    Philip Thomas

    It’s bloody outrageous. If I wander out for the night I normally take a can or two (or a hipflask) with me to drink on the way so that I can a) keep warm inside, b) keep my buzz up, c) lower my costs. I hold onto my rubbish till I find a bin and I’m not rowdy or vomitous in my movements. I either walk on public roads or use public transport, both places that are always inches away from having my behaviour labelled anti-social.
    I also love having wine with picnics, so I’m doubly screwed.
    Why can’t it be recognised that it is the lack of social conscience and personal restraint that is the primary problem in society, especially amongst the young. Booze is only a secondary factor.

    Reply
  8. Umbongo Avatar
    Umbongo

    “bansturbators like that police idiot this morning”
    He also said that raising the alcohol purchasing age and other suggested actions would “send a message” to the type of thug who hangs out on estates and randomly murders local householders. However, he sympathised with local policemen who refuse to confront mobs of feral youth. This, by the way, is a chief constable, somebody paid to see that the law is enforced. We are f**ked, really f**ked!

    Reply
  9. JuliaM Avatar
    JuliaM

    “…assuming that the policeman has common sense and discretion”
    Big assumption!
    “Why can’t it be recognised that it is the lack of social conscience and personal restraint that is the primary problem in society, especially amongst the young.”
    Because that might lead to all sorts of awkward questions as to what has led to this lack of social conscience and personal restraint.
    Far better to just blame it all on the evils of captialist institutions like Tesco & Asda.

    Reply
  10. Monty Avatar
    Monty

    The police already have sanctions for proscuting “the type of thug who hangs out on estates and randomly murders local householders”, and they will not use them. They won’t even show up while a serious assault is taking place. So what’s the point of giving them any more? Could it be that they want a pretext to harrass ordinary picknickers in the park, as a smokescreen to hide the fact they aren’t doing their real job? Or could it be that they know their public support is dead in the water, and their job is changing to suppression of the public.

    Reply
  11. Kay Tie Avatar
    Kay Tie

    “Could it be that they want a pretext to harrass ordinary picknickers in the park, as a smokescreen to hide the fact they aren’t doing their real job?”
    But the Home Office has defined their real job. It’s maximising sanctioned detection rates (SDRs).
    http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2007/02/12/faster-faster-harder-harder/
    Anyone wonder why the police are just as fed up with the police as the rest of us?

    Reply
  12. Roger Thornhill Avatar
    Roger Thornhill

    If the Police had spent the last 10 years enforcing the laws we have had for ages we would not be in quite such a mess.
    The rudeness and liberties taken by bingers would have seen them dragged off and thrown, literally, into a Black Maria and up before the Magistrate next day a decade or so ago.
    “This one, that one. It’s the inconvenience to the list. It’s the paperwork.”
    We need to cast away needless paperwork and lock them up again. Keep them in cages in a field if necessary, until they can be seen. The remaining terminally lippy ones will be the small percentage who, frankly, really should get taken off the streets for a long time.

    Reply
  13. sortapundit Avatar
    sortapundit

    The Guardian has been going mental over this all day (well, more so than usual). 3 or 4 articles at CiF call for increasing taxes on booze (raising prices sure keeps those homeless people good and sober) and raising the drinking age up to 21.
    Strangely enough, not one of the no doubt exemplary minds at the Guardian has considered that the best way to stop kids from drinking is to enforce the fucking law. Any licensee selling alcohol to a minor should have his license revoked instantly, and his spleen to boot. Problem solved.

    Reply
  14. Marcin Tustin Avatar
    Marcin Tustin

    I would welcome raising the drinking age to 21 – in the US many many parents allow their children to drink in supervised situations, because the 21 age is so manifestly ridiculous.
    Of course, bansturbators will trumpet it as a triumph of bansturbation when alcohol-fuelled crime falls. Ho hum.

    Reply

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