Could we soon be paying 50p per Unit for our Weekly Tipple?

Don’t you just love relaxing in front of your computer playing the latest free bingo games or sitting watching your soaps with a little glass of wine? How many of us love to kick-start our weekend with a bottle of beer or a vodka and coke? As long as we are responsible, alcohol can be a very enjoyable staple in our social activities or the perfect way to wind down at the end of a busy week. But could we soon be paying out the nose for something that we have taken for granted for years?

Yes, the “Nanny State” are at it again – unsurprisingly we are now being told that Britain are drinking too much and in an attempt to control this “binge nation” we could soon be slapped with a ridiculous 50p per unit as a MINIMUM price for alcohol. Apparently health based charities were on board with the Scottish Government’s attempt to tell us all what to do – again! – and Prime Minister David Cameron has been urged to follow in the Scottish Government’s footsteps to up the tax – currently at 40p – to 50 per unit, too. The leader of the British Medical Association stated, “The government in Westminster should follow Scotland’s lead and set the minimum price to at least 50p to make a real difference.” He then went on to say that supermarkets sell alcohol “ridiculously cheap” believing that this is one of the reasons that we are such a boozy nation. However, alcohol industry leaders have hit back saying that this unfair tax would “punish responsible drinkers,” and we have to agree.

Let’s face it – the UK is a nation of boozers. You only have to turn on an episode of “Booze Britain” or even head out to your town centre on a Saturday night to know that this is a true fact, however there are a lot of us who know how to enjoy a drink without humiliation ourselves, throwing up or damaging our livers and this tax on alcohol is not fair on those of us who CAN control ourselves! Why should the responsible drinkers be forced to pay this tax? The government claim that not only is this a move to try and stamp out alcohol related crime but it is also a move to try and combat our nations apparent “drinking problem.” Scotland’s chairman Brian Keighley stated, “The trend for cheap alcohol and excessive consumption has a human cost. This increasing cost could cripple the NHS with a financial burden that is no longer acceptable, especially in the current financial climate.”

No matter what light the government try to cast on this move, the bottom line is that this is yet another move from the “nanny state” to try and control the nation because of a minority of “problem drinkers.” At present, the Home Office are said to be in talks on this matter.