Stonch lives in London, where he runs a pub.Strong beer is a definite no-no
That's what the Tories are saying. First, we heard about Conservative Westminster Council's efforts to curb street drinking. They're banning the sale of strong lager on their Central London patch. Now, the national party is getting in on the act. Britain's main opposition have just announced policy proposals that would see swingeing tax rises for "super-strength beer".
The announcement is presumably aimed at the likes of Carlsberg Special Brew and Tennent's Super, rancid concoctions popular with lairy, bellowing tramps like your dad (pictured right). However, it's difficult to see how fine distinctions can be made between those and the quality beers that happen to be high in alcohol content. For example, no-one would consider a Trappist ale like Chimay Blue a weapon of choice for the park bench pissheads, but at 9% abv it's as strong as a can of loopy juice. Has anyone at Conservative Central Office thought about this? Do they even care?
Cameron's Conservatives aren't strangers to draconian policy proposals when it comes to tackling "Booze Britain", as this story from last year demonstrates. It seems that there's a cross-party consensus that legislative and/or regulatory action is needed. And while we're on the subject of binge drinking and politicians, check this out: Lib Dem Vince Cable cracked a joke about Wetherspoons at a party conference, comparing the dodgy lending practices of banks to the pubco's "sense of social responsibility". BBC News Online has the story.
12 comments:
After the discussion on pbc over the last couple of days, most Tories there seemed unconvinced.
My own (an I'm a Tory) view is that the pissheads don't care about flavour or body or anything other than getting ratted. So they'll simply change to whatever the cheapest means is to do so - vodka, gin, cider, snakebite, Mad Dog 2020, Thunderbird...
There does seem, however, to be a cross-party consensus (as you've noted) to bully us into drinking less. Not gonna help with pissheads, though ....
As you say, it isn't just the Tories who are on a health kick. The Liberals want tax breaks for fruit juice and smoothies! Look at this!
Thats that sorted then, Special Brew Smoothies.
How dare you use my image without permission. However flattering the picture might be, you really should ask me before publishing.
I thought it was Richard Branson!
I mentioned this on my blog a few weeks ago. Tramps will just switch to something else
http://southportbooze.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/tramps-face-tough-decision/
But at least the Tory proposals aren't as bad as the Lib Dems (wack up tax on all beer and use the savings for sugary fruit smoothies) or Labour (wack a massive tax on all alcohol because you've created a nice scare in the media about binge drinking.
Beer is shooting up in price and drinkers are becomign the new smokers. RESIST!
Ron, please accept my apologies. It was the least hungover photo of you I could find. In all the others you were passed out with a bottle of beer schnapps sticking out of your ear.
Southport Drinker, I find it difficult to believe you mentioned this policy proposal on your blog a few weeks ago when it was only announced on Friday!
I'd stress that I disapprove of brewers producing these nasty, super-strength lagers, as they are only used (or rather abused) by those seeking speedy oblivion. However as I say in the main post, raising taxes on them without also penalising quality strong beers would be difficult. Far better to appeal to the brewers directly not to be so irresponsible.
I was talking about the superstrength ban. The link is there for you to see for yourself. The ban thing is all so cynical - how many tramps get their lager from Waitrose, for example? In the meantime, it is absolutely impossible to survive on the streets without strong alcohol. Superstrength lager is a better option than vodka if anyone does care about these poor souls.
There's also a danger than beer snobbery will be used to put people down, e.g let's protect superstrength beer from micro-breweries in Belgium but ban british-made strong lager because chavs and tramps drink it.
My point is - the raison d'etre of my blog - is that all of these things, bans on strong lager, higher taxes, binge scare stories etc are pieces of a jigsaw that when you start putting them all together looks like prohibition
Southport Drinker, I'm afraid I tend to disagree with viewpoints like that. Politics isn't that simple. Deal in issues, not conspiracy theories and "thin end of the wedge" hokum.
the southport drinker said: "There's also a danger than beer snobbery will be used to put people down, e.g let's protect superstrength beer from micro-breweries in Belgium but ban british-made strong lager because chavs and tramps drink it."
Beer snobbery is already used to put people down, regardless of any impending changes in legislation. I like to drink strong Belgian (or English, or American) beers, and am baffled as to how the government intends to work around the problem (well, I see it as a problem - I'm sure they don't).
english beer isn't strong so will not be affected by this. its the strong FOREIGN beers that will be taxed more. are any of you old enough to remember "buy british"?? do it!!
Stonch said: "Far better to appeal to the brewers directly not to be so irresponsible."
That's the nub of the issue, isn't it? Perhaps we should all be displaying "Please brew responsibly" badges on our blogs. Time we gave the drinks industry a taste of their own patronisation.
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