Monday 16 March 2009

Alcohol: All Three Major Parties are a joke

On the issue of minimum prices for Alcohol, it now appears that Gordon Brown has done the right thing by deciding to do nothing. Maybe he should learn the lesson and apply it towards the economic debacle we now face.

The Tories propose more meddling

Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, said: “There is clearly a need for action. But it is very important to recognise that we need to deal with people’s attitudes and not just the supply and price of alcohol.”

He said that Conservative proposals, which include measures to tackle loss-leader promotions and higher taxes on high-alcohol drinks aimed at young people, would address this without penalising the majority of moderate drinkers. “This would seem to be a much better route to go down than distorting the whole drinks market, which in any case may not be legal.”

so they show their Authoritarian, micromanagement feathers. As such they can just clear off.

The Liberal Democrats are worse:

The Liberal Democrat culture, media and sport spokesman Don Foster backed Sir Liam’s call. “The Liberal Democrats have long argued that the ridiculously cheap below-cost price of alcohol in some of our supermarkets and off-licences is a key contributor to the problem of binge drinking,” he said. “There is clear research showing that putting an end to pocket money-priced alcohol will influence drinking behaviour. While more work needs to be done on the details, we welcome Sir Liam’s intervention and hope that the Government will act.”

proving the point recently repeated by DK, that the LDs are neither Liberal, nor "democratic", as in the commonly held understanding of the term to mean basically upholding Rule of Law.

Gordon has such a poor Political Compass, I wonder who advised him against it. Gordon's demagnetised political compass was bought at the same shop as those held by LibDems, but in their case it appears they believe in such twaddle root and branch.

3 comments:

Martin said...

This has saved me a lot of time. I was about to go to the law library- I'm convinced these plans would be contrary to EU law.

Not that I give a damn about the EU's law, but if the government love it so much they should stick to its damn rules.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Re: Your last para, Roger. I immediately assumed, when I read Brown's comments, that it whiffed of Mandy, just as he was (reportedly) instrumental in all but nullifying the hiding tobacco displays issue (delayed till 2011 & 2013 when the Tories, who oppose the idea, block it).

He seems to be just about the only one, amongst the Labour shower, who seems to understand that we really have had enough of this shit.

black hole sunset said...

The closer the (il)Liberal (un)Democrats get to power, if only in their own fevered imaginings, the worse they get.

Their only actual problem with Labour's last decade in office is that they wanted to do the same and worse - pure ego then, not much of an endorsement.

Evidence? .... Lord Carlile.

I do love the way his words say one thing but his microexpressions say another.

He's trying to manufacture some credibility out of the McKinnon case but he's as creepy as they come on substance.