Alcohol, harm or hazard ?
That is the dilemma I have after todays news.
Alcohol excesses are spoken about in this way but what is the difference ?
Too much is harmful, I agree.
Too much is a hazard if you get pissed and wander all over the road risking injury or death. Climbing of scaffolding to retrieve balloons is a definate no no, even if dressed as Captain Marvel. This is a potential hazard but definately harmful if it all goes horribly wrong.
I can only presume that this is some neat marketing trick by the Government to justify some costly research and then use this to raise taxes to deal with the effects but really to syphon the funds to another more politically deemed worthy cause.
Let's see, increase in duty on booze or a income tax hike ?
Perhaps even both ? Either way its bound to cost.
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6 comments:
WEB, I like a drink a few evenings a week, but how much better off the NHS and Police without the troubles it brings. Then again I am not stupid enough to go get pissed, beat up the missus/neighbour/chelsea fan/ passing dog walker/etc/etc.
A licence to purchase instead of to sell?
Benj
WEB
Spot on.
A cynical drip drip drip about global warming and saving us from the horrors of alcohol to soften us for stealth taxes to cover the revenues wasted to date.
I feel the urge for a beer already.
Alcohol is one of those things that is only a hazard in the hands of a moron. To most normal decent people a few glasses of wine/beer at the end of a tough day does not create any problem for anyone.
Once again it's the decent folk paying for the actions of the moronic chav.
i agree with the consensus here. i've had my moments, had to make Pfc twice but Lcpl only once back in my marine corps days, but i learned. these days i enjoy my evening glass of tullamore dew quietly at home at the end of the day. alcohol is not the problem, some of the people who drink it are.
"gunner"
The only real problem with bumping up the duty on alcohol is that we happen to be in this thing called the European Union, which says that if you buy and pay duty on a product in one member state, you can take it wherever you like.
Our Customs and Excise people have tried challenging this, and lost. They've tried ignoring the EU law, and lost. The way is effectively now open for every smuggler, moron, ne're do well and chancer to buy a crap minibus in Dover and drive over to Calais and fill up on cheap booze.
A similar thing is happening with tobacco; high duty here and low duty over there means it is highly lucrative to smuggle it, with the added advantage that the stuff isn't actually illegal to possess unlike controlled drugs.
This is the basic law of taxing things: if you make it more lucrative to dodge the tax and occasionally pay a penalty than to grit your teeth and pay, then people will simply dodge the tax and take their chances. Alcohol is an especially silly target to aim at since home production is childishly easy, even on a grand scale.
I like a drink a few evenings a week, but how much better off the NHS and Police without the troubles it brings. Then again I am not stupid enough to go get pissed, beat up the missus/neighbour/chelsea fan/ passing dog walker/etc/etc.
A licence to purchase instead of to sell?
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