Booze - minimum price?

[georgew]

The Scottish Government felt that something had to be done after the medics pointed out the damaging effects of cheap booze on Scottish society.

"Given the link between consumption and harm and evidence that affordability is one of the drivers of increased consumption, addressing price is an important element of any long-term strategy.

Alcohol is now 60 per cent more affordable in the UK than it was in 1980. It is possible in Scotland today to exceed the new lower risk guidelines for alcohol (14 units per week) for around £2.50. This is an unacceptable position and we have a responsibility to address this problem.

There is strong international evidence that tackling price - as part of a package of measures, including education and diversion - can help reduce alcohol consumption and related harm."

https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Ser ... um-pricing

[merseymouth]

Hi all, I think MickF has been consuming some very harmful stuff if he thinks we pay "Purchase Tax? That is going way back!
Wasn't it "Woy" Jenkins who replace that tax with "Value Added Tax", which is definitely an oxymoron?
What hurts most with folk who enjoy the skills of a good distiller is the percentage of the label price of such spirits is Taxes & Duties, criminal! MM

[mjr]

AS for whether it worked - reducing alchol consumption and alchol related deaths? Well not yet. Alcohol off sales increased in the first 9 months after the law. [...] Alchol related deaths up 1.4%

https://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.co ... tland.html

which that site quotes as "within the range of the ‘random’ year-to-year fluctuations".

Like the French Revolution, it seems too soon to tell whether it's working.

[Mick F]

Hi all, I think MickF has been consuming some very harmful stuff if he thinks we pay "Purchase Tax? That is going way back!

A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet?

VAT is a purchase tax.
You pay it when you buy something.

[Oldjohnw]

Hi all, I think MickF has been consuming some very harmful stuff if he thinks we pay "Purchase Tax? That is going way back!

A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet?

VAT is a purchase tax.
You pay it when you buy something.

Pre-EU. Mick likes to think we never joined.

[Mick F]

What?

VAT stands for value added tax.
Yes it's an EU thing to call it that, but it's still purchase tax.

It's what it's levied on that is an issue. Loads of strange anomalies, but it's still a purchase tax nonetheless.

[mjr]

What?

VAT stands for value added tax.
Yes it's an EU thing to call it that, but it's still purchase tax.

It's what it's levied on that is an issue. Loads of strange anomalies, but it's still a purchase tax nonetheless.

It's really not, but you don't run a business so it looks like one to you.

[Mick F]

Yes, but this subject is about minimum charges for booze in Scotland.
Artificially increased charges, that it was suggested were a regressive tax like VAT. I suggested that it was a purchase tax.

[merseymouth]

Hi MickF, So VAT is de facto a Purchase Tax? Bit like VED is a Road Tax, used by those who can' b bothered to think things through?
It is also considered a "Luxury Tax" by some folk, but how does that equate to it being levied on "Female Sanitary Products"?
VAT is an E.U. controlled tax system, with a small leeway for states to vary it, but "Woy" knew that when he switched things! TTFN MM

[Mick F]

You are correct in this MM.

My point back earlier was that a minimum price for something, is like putting a tax on it.
Call it what you want, but as far as the punter is concerned, the state is putting a tax on it.

As for minimum price for booze in Scotland, what about a minimum price for drugs?
If a minimum price for alcohol is supposed to cut down on alcoholism, why not a minimum price for drugs?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48938509
Scotland has highest drug death rate in EU.

[merseymouth]

Hi MickF, +1 . Sots = Dopes. MM

[Polisman]

Men in Shettleston, Glasgow, die younger than anywhere else in the country. At 63, life expectancy is 14 years less than the national average and comparable with Iraq and some countries in the Third World. When you consider life expectancy in the home counties as high as 86 years, that's nearly a quarter of a century less, on average.

I suppose its mortality figures like these such have prompted the Scottish government to act. Though, as said previously, drug use is still a massive problem north of the border.

[Mick F]

Thread resurrection.

We were in Lidl's Tavistock, England a few days ago and bought two four-packs of Hatherwood Amber Adder.
Good value at £3.89 each.

As a matter of interest, I looked it up on the Lidl website and saw that the cost in Scotland and Wales is £5.00
https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/ale-stout/h ... der/p24075

Looking at the Scotland alcohol website, I see that the minimum price is 50p per unit.
https://www.gov.scot/policies/alcohol-a ... t-pricing/

Looking at the cans of Hatherwood, they are 5% alc and 2.5units. Four of them is 10units so 50p per unit is indeed five quid.

Ok so far?

However .................. Please bear with me here ............

We also bought a couple of bottles of Cimarosa South African Pinotage at £3.89 each.
https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/p/red-wine/ci ... tage/p9982

It's £5.44 in Scotland, but that got me thinking about why.

The wine is 14% alc but no info about units.
If 5% beer is 2.5units, it must mean that 10ml of alcohol = 1unit and as one unit is 50p, the price for Hatherwood is correct in Scotland.

14% wine in a 75cl bottle must contain 10.5units ................... 14% of 750ml = 105ml = 10.5units.
Therefore the Scottish price should be £5.25 ................ and not £5.44.

Am I correct with my arithmetic or am I missing some info here?

[fausto copy]

Why not just enjoy the taste Mick?

[Oldjohnw]

I think I need a drink!