The BBC have finally gone and said it:
Health ministers are describing drinking as the new smoking amid rising concern about the price of alcohol in the UK.
The Scottish government has suggested a range of radical measures, including a minimum price per unit of alcohol. After a public consultation they are due to respond with more detailed proposals for legislation later this month. The idea of minimum pricing is supported by medical organisations and charities, but opposed by retailers who say moderate drinkers would be unfairly penalised. The Scottish government says the connection between price and consumption is backed by international evidence, including the recent experience of Finland.
They gleefully trotted out some statistics on the effect of tax/price cuts on alcohol consumption in Finland on BBC News 24 yesterday evening, finishing off with the solemn message "Cheaper booze costs lives".
I'd have thought that "Cheaper booze costs less" is the main lesson that we can draw from this.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
"Drinking is the new smoking"
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7 comments:
If it were a matter of moving taxes to excise duty in a revenue neutral way I would be entirely in favour - it now being 1/14th of revenue (or indeed cutting the revenue). It makes sense for tax to discourage damaging things rather than discoutaging weaslth creation. Unfortunately I don't think that is what is being offered.
I tell you what destroys lives, removing choices from the living!
I posted the "first they came for the..., but I was not" stories telling people that booze was next on the neo-puritans list. They ignored it or didn't believe me.
My investment in starting a speak-easy becomes one step closer. smoking, drinking and freedom of speech! By paying no duty i'll also make a packet. Fuck you HMG.
"Since 2005 alcohol-related problems have been the most common cause of death among Finnish people of working age. "
Now, this sounded a bit suspect to me, so I went off to see what Google said about this, and stumbled across this:-
http://www.stat.fi/til/ksyyt/2007/ksyyt_2007_2008-12-04_kuv_001_en.html
Now, maybe it's a co-incidence, but this is a chart where around 2005, drinking deaths become the biggest deaths of working age men (the women's chart is similar).
Two things to note...
1) It has really only become the biggest cause of death because heart disease and accidents have come down so much.
2) The numbers are at the lower end of nothing. For men and women combined. It's gone from around 31 deaths per 100,000 to around 43 deaths per 100,000. Or, an extra 12 people per 100,000.
It is utterly mendacious to use numbers that low to frighten people into suggesting there is a serious health problem from cheap booze.
just to add, this piece by the BBC in 2006 has a spot of the old bait-and-switch headlining...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6106570.stm
"Alcohol now Finland's top killer" becomes "Figures for 2005 released by the state statistics agency showed alcohol killed more people aged 15 to 64 than cardiovascular disease or cancer.", which suggests my little digging hit the spot.
This is also yet more evidence of why the license fee should be abolished (can we get this to be UKIP policy sometime)?
Since when did *Scandinavian* data about booze prove *anything*? Have the stupid BBC writers seen them drink, read their literature, talked to young Swedes (or been to their parties)? On the more general point, I am sick of all the damage to my property and nuisance that drunks cause. But I would like to see this dealt with by effective policing, straightworward charges and tough sentencing. As far as the damage people do *themselves* by drinking (if they do), while there is little way of telling whether they would do even more damage to their own health if they didn't drink, there is no reason by people who are concerned about it should not seek to provide educational interventions within the law, for which they (and not the state) pay.
The Scottish Government are in favour of minimum increases in duty on alcohol as long at it doesn't increase the price of whicky!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7293683.stm
TA, they are forever trotting out that 'biggest cause if death' statistic to prove that they have to ban whatever it is that they want to ban this week, but as you rightly point out, without ever mentioning the actual very low figure.
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