The self righteous new temperance movement hides itself behind a whole bundle of lies. The suggested move to put 50p tax on each unit drunk has brought to light the flaws in thier arguments. The tax brought in from the alcohol industry provides £15 billion a year which is far greater than the cost of the NHS. The temperance movement calculates a figure of £2.7 billion as the cost to the NHS along with the impact on family life, crime and roughly 500 road annual road deaths. The 50p a unit measure would push the cost of all bottles of wine up to £4.50, the current mode average is around £3. The poorest 10% of society spend an average of £5 a week on booze, the richest 10% £28. This is effectively a tax on the poor. The smoking ban has already seen pubs closing down at the rate of 4 a week in Leeds alone. Once the hub of a community where fathers would discuss the actions of thier youths and thgis info leading to appropriate clips round the ear kept society self policed. Now chaos is the order of the day with no one responsible for the actions of thier wild teenage offspring.
The Temperance movement of the 19th century was quashed by an alliance of the working class and the Wigs. In 1859 the commons rejected the religiously inspired proposal, alcohol was deemed to incur costs 'which society can afford to bear, for the sake of the greater good of human freedom'. The current proposals are likely to push alcohol in to different atreas, a rise in home brewing, home distillation. Is this better than all the benefits, rarely admitted, of the visible alcohol culture at present? The damage of the illegality of street drugs is imeasurably high. If alcohol follows suit the repurcussions wouldbe hideous. A huge rise in shop lifting. As all alcoholic shoplifters know, the half bottle of Martell is of perfect design, the neck of the bottle sculpts gradually upward to allow easy removal of thewire security tag. The lower bottle shape, flat yet with a slightly rounded cross section allows for a perfect and invisible trouser front shove that even tight summer clothing can coceal. Effectively, the shop lifting alcoholic is more likely to use spirits than weaker fluids.
Without the social glue of alcohol society would be like a brick wall without mortar, teetering on the brink of collapse. I needn't mention the recent research that proves drinking heavily is the best protection against heart disease Britains biggest killer, that the liver is the only organ capable of regeneration, the depressing dip in form of our ages most successful artist since he became tee total, the voice from the shy and withdrawn that alcohol can summon up, the joy, merriment and happiness that all but a small pocket of alcohol use creates. The history of our entire culture is built on a foundation of our love of drinking. Is all this worth destroying for the actions of a small minority? I think not.
As usual you look at the issue from a refreshing viewpoint. Do you not accept that there is a problem with achohol? Perhaps not with alchohol, perhaps it is a symptom of a deeper poblem in society and the new puritans are just treating the symptom. I believe the problm is affluence and meaninglessness. Affluence means we can do everything to excess, from polluting the planet to damaging our bodies. Meaninglessness gives us the urge to excess. In the west what real challenges are there in the average persons life. We can go from the cradle to the grave without being tested in any way. That makes life sterile and meaningless, so people look for ways to escape it.
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