Me last Sunday morning...
Sir Liam Donaldson, the Government's chief killjoy (he was the one who proposed the smoking ban, to help close pubs and make smokers go out in the pissing rain after we'd just paid £3.20 for a pint) wants to increase alcohol price according to units contained in the bottle/can.
The Ministry of Frenzied-Bloodthirsty Social Control would like to bring down alcohol related crime, anti-social behaviour and generally turn this once great nation into a kind of puritan community where poor drunkards are punished with social exclusion and a massive tax.
While it is laudable that the Government wants to see less violent drunkenness on the streets of Britain, you do kind of get the feeling that what is at the root of this is the near Talibanisation of the UK. Gordon Brown says this idea of Sir Liam Donaldson's is a bit too much, but adds that the reason he doesn't want to see alcohol increase in price (at this time when Depression is causing depression), is because he doesn't want the 'reasonable, sensible drinking community to be punished for the sins of the irresponsible drinking community.'
So, hands up who is in the 'responsible, sensible drinking community'? I'm certainly not, nor it seems, are any of my friends, who on a Saturday night get royally pissed and end up consoling ourselves with a kebab, only to wake up to it in the morning on our chests. Well, maybe that's just me. You get my point.
Furthermore, are the Government really suggesting that everyone in the House of Commons is a 'responsible, sensible, drinker', who has a pint of lager and then goes home to dilligently look after his wife and family. Or is it possible that there are a good many people in the House of Commons who prop up the bar 'til closing time and roll out of a taxi after a fantastic session and one too many scotches?
So, what is this Sir Liam Donaldson's idea, and Brown's division of the sheep and goats of alcohol consumption really about? It's about snobbery, hypocrisy and blindness to the reality that Brits have always had a bit of an uneasy relationship with alcohol, that we're pent up, frustrated English whose only release from the drudgery of workaholism is alcoholism and that we'll never be so accepting of ourselves as the Spanish, French or Italians. As far as I can see, the grand majority of British people aged between 18-40 at least are pissheads and are by no means 'sensible or responsible drinkers'.
2 comments:
I suspect that a lot of people are drinking more because they can't enjoy a smoke in comfort. Not to worry: when alcohol is banned we will start taking politics seriously, nay passionately, like they do in Muslim countries....
Getting drunk is not a good thing. There is a trail of damage and debris in the town on Sunday mornings, broken glass on the beach, people cut their feet on it. Sometimes the servers go missing and then there are not enough to do all the things like carrying the thurible, cross and candles, especially if Arsenal are playing and the MC is off to the match.
And it causes violence, sometimes domestic violence and including the odd murder, and a lot of work for the police and Acccident and Emergency whose staff get abused. It leads to cirrhosis of the liver, brain damage, unconsidered sex, STDs, abortion, homelessness, road traffic accidents. All of which costs the NHS a fortune. Nothing clever about it.
This is one of the reasons why Britain is going down the swanee. Just bought my ferry ticket out.
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