A drink with dinner?

You alcoholic, you want to have a drink at home you are a menace and a drain on the NHS. Our beloved Government's Health Minister, Caroline Flint has said that "There are people, adults, who on a very regular basis are probably drinking twice the amount that is recommended." “We want to target older drinkers, those that are maybe drinking one or two bottles of wine at home each evening,” a Whitehall source said. “They do not realise the damage they are doing to their health and that they risk developing liver disease. Read the BBC's "report" here and The Times's here.

SO WHAT, IF WE AS ADULTS WANT TO DRINK IN THE PRIVACY OF OUR OWN HOMES WE WILL.

A Home Office report says there were 7.1m "hazardous and harmful" drinkers in England, costing the health economy £1.3bn. £1.3bn, that's a lot isn't it? According to helpful comment on Devils Kitchen in 2005/6 Beer & cider duties raised £3.2 bn, Spirits duties £2.3 bn and Wine duties £2.3bn. So drinkers pay around £7.7bn in taxes and duties, now that is a lot, a lot MORE.

Now I like to share a bottle of wine with the wife every couple of days and tonight we have shared a jug of Mojitos. Do we average two bottles of wine a night? no. A bottle of wine a night? Probably not even that.

Please read these blogger articles for more trenchant criticism of this abhorrent policy:
Devils Kitchen - "The state wants to control your behaviour, ladies and gentlemen, and it no longer feels that it has to be subtle about it; could anything else be so indicative of NuLabour's arrogance and the confidence that it has in its control over the social mores of the British people?"


and Tim Worstall - "People simply cannot be allowed to choose their own path to perdition, that's entirely unacceptable. We'll have to ban wine cellars, as this allows people to have too much alcohol in the house. All wine racks will have to be replaced so that only one bottle in a 24 hour period can be used, corkscrews fitted with a timer so that again, only one use per 24 hours is possible.

Of course, that won't be enough, for what of the renegades who will buy two wine racks, or two bottle openers? A full complement of Council Alcohol Officers will have to be hired and trained. Sherry and Port will no longer be for sale in those oversized 0.7 litre bottles, for they allow excessive consumption. Sales of screw top wine (shudder) by the case must of course be banned.

Once such measures are in place, the CCTV cameras placed over every drinks tray, State approved watery beer served only to those who have fulfilled their quota, then, finally, we will all be as free and as happy as it is possible to be! Songs of praise and paeans of joy will ring out across the land as we give thanks to those who will save us from ourselves!"


The control freakery of this Government is getting beyond parody and beyond belief.