Prime minister backs local ban on cheap booze

yes, i thought hev would leave it to local councils and i ask you are they going to fight the big supermarket chains,of course they arent.

another bit of tory backlsliding i think an this major issue.

When is Cameron going to slip on a polyester frock, perm his hair, change his middle name to Hilda and be done with it?

Every time this man opens his mouth I hear the echoes of Thatcher.

Binge drinking is a problem but do the Tories really think all of the nation''s ills are working class?

Of course they do. Chase the cheap-lager drinkers, track down the benefit frauds. To finance the UK's prodigal bankers ... whose losses were a shade over 2 billion quid I seem to recall ... the government needs all the funds it can get. And who better to pay than the nation's lowest earners.

Miners' strike anyone? Can of Stella with that?

ps ps and andrew lansley doesnt know what he is talking about when it comes to low income families being punished. you either have a booze problem or ytou dont and if you do as we have in the UK then you do something about it and put a min price on it. i pay £2.70 for a pint of beer in my local pub many pay over £3,there arent any drunken people in pubs where i drink !

Barz, do you think there is a drug problem in the UK?

How much is an eighth these days, or a line of coke?

Not cheap, I'd guess. But people seem to find the money.

Your argument doesn't stand up.

Raising the price of booze in supermarkets isn't really going to have a major impact on the real problem binge drinkers,unless the price is raised by so much that there is a public outcry by the vast majority of us who cause no problems to society.

Regrettably,the pub industry has had such a bashing from successive Governments and highly indebted pub companies such as Punch and Enterprise(who run the vast majority of leased pubs in the country) that many are dying on their knees.When I was a 'Grumpy Young Man' you learned your drinking in the controlled environment of a pub and didn't misbehave.Yes,many of us started drinking in pubs underage but as long as we were sensible no-one seemed too bothered.It is ironic that today there is such a kerfuffle about underage drinking that many of our youngsters drink anywhere but the pub!

I take barz's point re no drunken people in his pub(God how dull!!)but I hope he isn't suggesting that the price of booze in a supermarket is pushed up towards pub levels!As a nation ,for a variety of reasons ,many people have got out of the habit of going to the pub to drink and socialise.....we do so at home and I for one do not want to be 'punished' because the existing laws we have in this country re anti social,rowdy and yobbish behaviour are not properly enforced by the authorities.

Cheers!

People who are noisy and boisterous after having a few drinks are usually causing no actual harm to anyone else, although to many people especially sober people that behaviour can seem very intimidating.

But where drunken people really are causing a problem what happened to the law ? I remember when people were actually charged and sent to court for being drunk and disorderly. Also I think urinating in public would have been illegal too as would threatening behaviour etc. I suspect where once a policeman's word that you were drunk would have been accepted by the court, nowadays he probably needs six folders full of evidence to support his claim. Not to mention several hours away from his actual on street duties in order to do the paperwork connected with the arrest.

As usual to blame the person committing the crime, let's blame the shops or the pubs or anyone else. Don't blame the drunken yobs who are obviously just victims of an evil supermarket drinks promotion.

Stephen Roach you have hit the nail on the head.

Things like this really annoy me, why punish everybody when all that is needed is to tackle the minority causing the problem. Why not have zero tolerance on people being drunk and disorderly instead. Maybe even a minimum sentence of a week in a police cell (as well as the £80 fine), obviously at first this is going to cost us more but they will soon get the idea.

Cost is not the issue here, if it were then surely the £80 fine they get after being thrown in the van would put them off acting the fool in the first place?

Increasing the price of drinks will not affect D Cameron and his gang, neither will it stop people drinking. Booze are cheaper in most parts of Europe and also most drink more than the British but don't have all these binge drinking problem. In Europe most drink to socilaise and a have a good time, in UK drinking has been taken as a means of venting anger , destroying properties and fighting. Education and changing attitudes on drinking will be far better than increasing the price of booze and as always it is the poor and working class that will suffer more from price increases. Those advocating price increases will not notice the rise, they will make up for it via claims on expences councellors, politicians, bankers etc ; We are not all in this crisis together some are in it more!

All that will happen is that people will 'booze cruise' to another area and carry on. Shops inside the region will then lose the benefit of the rest of the weekly shop basket.

Note, these are the same local authority leaders that convinced themselves that the public overwhelmingly supported a Manchester congestion charge to pay for the Metrolink expansion. Couldn't have been much wronger!!

Clueless, totally clueless.

If binge drinking causes public disorder, crack down on the bingers causing disorder, not the rest of us who increasingly enjoy a drink in the privacy of our own homes.