Unenforceable, unworkable and unfair

November 15th, 2010

No one likes paying tax but we all accept we have to pay our dues to some extent for the services we rely on and enjoy.

So if a politician proposed a new levy that would disproportionately impact on those on fixed incomes, raise £140 million for the supermarket chains and not a penny for the public purse, you would have thought they had been drinking to excess.

Believe it or not, that is what the Scottish Government proposed this week and it was rightly shot down by 76-49 votes by the opposition parties looking for a serious solution to a serious problem.

The minimum unit pricing for alcohol was badged as the silver bullet that would cure all our social ills, end anti-social behaviour and bring up public health standards.

But under closer scrutiny, it turned out to unenforceable, unworkable and unfair.

The findings of the studies into minimum pricing proved that it would act as no real deterrent for the hardened drinkers we are at risk.

Instead, this blanket approach to pricing would have punished the moderate drinkers, families on fixed incomes and pensioners by hiking up the price of the bottle of wine they might enjoy at the end of the week.

I may have been persuaded by the case for minimum pricing had the extra revenue been returned to the public purse, to be reinvested in the hospitals and courts which bear the brunt of our country’s alcohol excess.

But under the Scottish Government’s proposals, the money would instead be diverted into the cash registers of the supermarkets and drinks retailers, to the tune of £140 million a year.

If we are serious about tackling this, we should be working with the UK government to produce a more targeted pricing mechanism that would at least generate extra tax revenue for our health service.

The Scottish Government, in their determination to generate a headline or a legacy on par with the smoking ban, were not for listening and failed to make their case this week.

The impact alcohol has on Scottish life is sobering in itself, only a new approach to this problem will get us back on the wagon.