As an experiment, I was looking at some of my favourite drinks and wondering what effect it might have on them. A bottle of Hobgoblin Ale by Wychwood Brewery has 2.6 units. A 50p minimum would mean it had to be sold for £1-30, which would be quite a competitive price; 40p would mean £1-04 minimum. Bottles of wine would have to cost £4 or £5, depending on strength and the level set. The biggest impact would be on cheap bottles of spirits, as a bottle typically contains 25-30 units, so that's £10-12 minimum. Again, no effect on the better quality end of the market.
So, is this common sense, or will it simply penalise the poorer drinker?
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1 comment:
It will of course penalise the poorer drinker, as they will get less drink for the same amount of money. On the other hand, the stuff that sells for less than 50p per unit is hideous anyway. The exception probably being the high-quality, but high alcohol, ciders. Westons Old Rosie sells for about £4 for 2 litres, and that's about 16 units of alcohol - so about 25p per unit. If you slapped a min price on these per unit they'd go up to about £8 for 2 litres, which seems a bit rough on the kind of small-ish companies that are in this market - but then the muck that is basically water, sugar and a drop of apple juice that is also purveyed as "cider" would go up the same way, so maybe that's not so bad.
I'd like to see any in increase in tax on off-sales, balanced by a reduction or support for local pubs. Thus encouraging sensibe social drinking in a managed environment. Unfortunately it would appear that the current Government hates local pubs (well, they're not restaurants in Islington), so I'm not going to hold out much hope.
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