The Prime Minister is to introduce legislation that will set a minimum alcohol price of 40p a unit in England. He will also ban supermarkets and other retailers from offering multi-buy discount deals on alcohol.
No one can deny the huge damage done to society by alcohol misuse, but whatever the causes, the effects of this measure will be minimal. Pricing is a blunt tool to a complex problem and will only serve to punish responsible consumers and curtail market freedoms.
Binge drinking and alcohol over-indulgence in the UK have roots that go far deeper than the price of a four-pack in your local supermarket – the issues are cultural and only a educative strategy that that seeks to engage the population across all levels of the problem can change that.
It also seems fantastical that the off-trade has been singled out. As the British Retail Consortium’s Andrew Opie said today: “It’s a myth to suggest that supermarkets are the problem or that a pub is somehow a safer drinking environment.”
Wander into any number of town and city centre across the UK on a Friday or Saturday night and you’ll witness first hand the folly of that premise.
The announcement today follows months of disagreement within the coalition. The policy flies in the face of one of the core tenets of Conservative policy – the free market - and the precedent it sets in social intervention could be just as significant as the Blair administration’s ban on public smoking.
But the fact it has the personal backing of the PM reflects one of the contradictions long at the heart of Conservatisim in the UK – the clash between a desire for social order and the ‘small state’.
There is a political play here too of course. The numbers around alcohol related deaths and disease are shocking but make for striking headlines. Unfortunately, there is political capital to be made from the human suffering.
But the alcohol industry - from producer to retailer - must learn from today’s events. In health secretary Andrew Lansley it had an ally when it came to a non-legislative approach to reducing alcohol harm. But the industry has done too little to convince critics that the Responsibility Deals introduced at the beginning of 2011 would work. Unless retailers and their suppliers can step up their game, today’s announcement may be only the tip of the legislative iceberg.
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