Wot, again ?

Yes, sorry all, but today seems to have become "stats day".

This G headline caught my eye: Hospital admissions linked to alcohol rise to more than a million in year and as might be expected is the G following its now well worn path of regarding anything emanating from Alcohol Concern as impeccable, unbiased, and 'what this avowedly liberal news-organ is 100% behind'. Cue hints that G fully supports minimum alcohol pricing and is not afraid to have a sly dig at politico's who apparently don't:

The bleak figures prompted doctors to call again for minimum alcohol pricing, which is the subject of a legal battle between the drinks industry and the Scottish government and is still formally under consideration in England although there is little ministerial appetite for it.

So, we have "An estimated 1.22m hospital admissions in England were linked to drinking too much alcohol in 2011-12, according to NHS figures – a 51% rise over the past nine years". [minor diversion, why the NHS nowadays uses agencies such as AC to publish their data, who knows, maybe Jeremy Hunt wants to avoid a 'getting on the wrong side of Michael Scholar and UKSA situation' as has befallen IDS and Grant Shapps] and "Hospital admissions for which drink was the main cause rose to 200,900 in 2011-12, 1% more than the previous year, and more than 40% up on 2002-03."

And so on, but the important thing is, as stressed in that G headline, we are now all so permanently sozzled on cheap supermarket lager that we picked up during a visit to actually buy some bottled water but discovering the lager was cheaper bought that instead that the number of us being admitted to hospital where alcohol was a contributing factor (according to the persons recording the reason for the admission, so presumably it includes "broken toe - cause 'dropped twelve pack of ridiculously cheap, almost as if they were giving it away, lager on foot in local Supermarket') rose to more than a million in 2012. S'funny I thought, only I am pretty sure we had already crossed that particular rubicon of shame and reckless waste of NHS resources before. And guess what -- A million-alcohol-related-hospital admissions?
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UPDATE. MW adds, what I like about these tractor stats is that every now and then they drop their guard. In early 2012, the BBC published this shock-horror-stat...

According to Downing Street, there were 200,000 hospital admissions in 2010-11 with alcohol as the primary factor, which was 40% than in 2002-03. The £2.7bn which alcohol abuse is estimated to cost the NHS each year equates to £90 for every taxpayer.

... and promptly withdrew it a few hours later.