ADVANCED CRITICAL WRITING

Advanced Critical Writing

Advanced Critical Writing

Introduction

The plans to introduce minimum alcohol unit prices in England and Wales may be dropped, as the Cabinet is split on the issue. The Prime Minister David Cameron wished to create a price floor for alcohol, and the Home Office is now considering responses to its 10-week consultation on a price of 45p per unit. According to BBC political correspondent Louise Stewart, several Cabinet ministers oppose the plans, including Home Secretary Theresa May, Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove and Leader of the House of Commons Andrew Lansley. Mr Lansley opposed this measure during his time as Health Secretary, but new Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt seeks legislation for alcohol minimum pricing (Elder, 2010, pp. 217).

James Kirkup, Deputy Political Editor for The Telegraph, reports that the Treasury are also against alcohol minimum pricing, believing the resulting drop in consumption will seriously harm tax revenues from alcohol duties. The extra taxation on alcohol garners £2.8bn from sales of spirits, £3.4bn from wine and £3.8bn from beer and cider. In total, alcohol duties deliver £10bn a year to the Treasury.

Alcohol pricing could lead to stricter border controls

Last week the government announced it is setting the minimum price per unit of alcohol at 45p. Much has been written about the potential effectiveness of this policy on reducing problematic and binge drinking. Other than the stated aims of this policy, I believe there are some rather troubling broader issues. Framing binge culture in nationalistic terms is the thin end of a draconian wedge.

As the aims of the policy are to reduce the consumption of cheap beverages, it is fair to assume that it is impoverished drinkers who are going to bear the brunt of the increase is alcohol costs. Minimum per unit pricing will not affect the price of expensive, and therefore exclusive, beverages, but the cost of cheap supermarket and off-licence sold drinks will no doubt increase. As one of the stated aims of the policy is to reduce binge drinking, there is an assumption behind this policy that binge drinking is a malaise of the poor, that the better-off do not engage in such behaviour, or if they do, there are no negative social or public health consequences (Rabinovich, 2009, pp. 31).

Historically, whenever governments have tried to control the sale of alcohol, there has been another group of beneficiaries other than the alcohol industry. The raising of the price of low cost alcoholic beverages is likely to have a significant impact on the profitability of alcohol smuggling. According to HM Revenues and Customs, the alcohol smuggling industry costs the treasury £1.2 billion per year in unpaid duties and much of the business of alcohol trafficking is controlled by organised criminals. This begs the question: why would the government want to introduce a policy which is going to benefit those engaged in the illegal alcohol trade?

In order to get near to an answer to this question, we need to think about the relationship between the moral panic of ...