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What Does Minimum Alcohol Pricing Mean?


Yak_Louis

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David Cameron has announced a new minimum pricing policy for alcohol - but what are the key issues?

Q: What is the minimum price the Government will set for alcohol?

A: Ministers want a minimum charge of 40p per unit.

Q: What drinks will the minimum pricing policy affect?

A: Home Secretary Theresa May says that only the cheapest fifth of alcohol products will be affected.

Q: Is the strategy proving popular so far?

A: The response has been mixed. Minimum pricing has been broadly welcomed by alcohol charities, including Alcohol Concern. But it has met with criticism from retail organisations. The British Retail Consortium called the minimum pricing idea "seriously misguided".

Q: So what are the reservations?

A: British Retail Consortium food director Andrew Opie said minimum pricing was effectively a "tax on responsible drinkers". He said it was a myth to suggest that supermarkets were responsible for the alcohol problem.

Q: Won't the policy just affect those on a lower income?

A: That is the belief of some in the industry. Andrew Cowan, country director of Diageo GB, whose brands include Smirnoff and Guinness, said poorer consumers would be hardest hit. However, there is evidence to show that people on low incomes are the least likely to drink alcohol at all. Independent research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) shows that cheap alcohol is bought by all income groups. The factor that most determines whether you are likely to buy really cheap alcohol is not your income, but how much you drink.

Q: So how much more will we have to spend on alcohol a year?

A: Moderate drinkers (up to 21 units a week for men and 14 units for women) would be £5 to £6 worse off a year should the MUP come into effect, statistics showed. The average drinker would be out of pocket by £21 to £23 a year, and "harmful drinkers" (more than 50 units a week for men and 35 for women) would be hit by £105 to £135 a year.

Q: How much does alcohol misuse cost the UK every year?

A: Latest figures suggest that the full cost of alcohol abuse, including hospital treatment and one million violent crimes a year, is £21bn.

Q: So how much would the mimumum pricing strategy save in health costs every year?

A: Government projections show healthcare costs would drop by £30m in the first year of a 40p per unit minimum, growing to £93m by the 10th year.

Q: And how about crime?

A: The Government projects there would be 50,600 fewer crimes each year, saving £54m over 12 months.

Q: Is there anything else in the Alcohol Strategy apart from minimum pricing?

A Yes. The strategy also includes the banning of multi-buy discount deals, a zero tolerance approach to drunken behaviour in A&E departments, a late-night levy to get pubs and clubs to help pay for policing, and improved powers to stop serving alcohol to drunks.

Q: Is there any evidence that this will improve the nation's health?

A: Yes, according to some leading researchers. Professor Ian Gilmore, of the Royal College of Physicians and the Alcohol Health Alliance, said minimum pricing "should bring about real (health) benefits". Government figures predict there would be 7,000 fewer people admitted to hospital in the first year of the 40p minimum unit price (MUP), rising to 30,000 by year 10.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16194712

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This will not make any difference to anything. Until the day the price of alcohol in clubs is brought down. Or the price of alcohol in supermarkets brought up to the level of clubs. People will binge drink

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"There is evidence to show that people in low income are the least likely to drink alcohol at all."

Lolwut

Looooool.

The other day I was going to work. Manager, so I open the store and its like 8am... I go to the shop next door to get an orange juice and i see two girls in there. They were both wearing pyjamas and buying cans of Tennants and White Lightining.

I was disgusted.

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It's all some hype people r still gonna get smashed just won't be able to do as often. Need to actually look at the culture of the country.

They are talking about people getting pissed before going out. Reason for that is the price of drinks inside clubs extortion

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"There is evidence to show that people in low income are the least likely to drink alcohol at all."

Lolwut

Looooool.

The other day I was going to work. Manager, so I open the store and its like 8am... I go to the shop next door to get an orange juice and i see two girls in there. They were both wearing pyjamas and buying cans of Tennants and White Lightining.

I was disgusted.

More than likely your tax money paying for it.

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Guest petercrotch

Just the government applying more "tax"

Will change nothing .

This is infact an english cultural problem that needs to be nipped in the bud and fast .

The government should come down hard on drinkers if you ask me , start issuing on the spot HEFTY fines for vomitting in public because one cannot handle thier drink , There should be hefty fines for drunken urinating,and any other form of drunken anti social behavior .

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Guest petercrotch

"There is evidence to show that people in low income are the least likely to drink alcohol at all."

Wouldn't suprise me if this is true .

The more money you make the more you have to spend on alcahol .

And the more you can afford to go out

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This will help nothing.

People who want to will drink just as much and be poorer.

C/S.

Always annoys me when people talk about price, age and units of alcohol as if everything is that simple.

Go to Germany, where youths are drinking at 16, stronger beer than here for less.....yet without the yob mentality.

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This will help nothing.

People who want to will drink just as much and be poorer.

C/S.

Always annoys me when people talk about price, age and units of alcohol as if everything is that simple.

Go to Germany, where youths are drinking at 16, stronger beer than here for less.....yet without the yob mentality.

Yeh people in this country are f*cked...if they ent on jeremy kyle, they're at home watching it with a can of special brew.

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from what I gathered people are just going to be slightly worse off n still get pissed out there mind

how can the guy at work tell me he spent his weeks wages down the pub Friday night , don't remember sh*t , fell asleep outside his yard on the street then tell me it's sick and he's doing it next week

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from what I gathered people are just going to be slightly worse off n still get pissed out there mind

how can the guy at work tell me he spent his weeks wages down the pub Friday night , don't remember sh*t , fell asleep outside his yard on the street then tell me it's sick and he's doing it next week

Guy is enjoying life, let him live it.

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Checked the bbc calculator.

if i had 4 pints and 4 spirits a week it would only set me back an extra £9 year

this is only really gonna effect them strong ciders drinkers and crate deals at supermarkets

_59262473_alcohol_pricing_464in.gif

http://www.bbc.co.uk...siness-17442946

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