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Commenting on reports on Sunday that David Cameron wants to follow the Scottish Government’s lead and introduce a minimum price for alcohol, SNP MSP Jim Eadie has said that there was now no excuse for the Tories in Scotland not to back the Scottish Government’s own proposals.

According to the Sun newspaper, Mr Cameron is preparing plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol in order to tackle the social and health problems associated with binge drinking. 

The plans are expected to be unveiled shortly before this month’s budget.  The Coalition government hopes to introduce minimum pricing by April 2015, just before the date pencilled in for the next Westminster General Election.

The Scottish Government’s plans to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol are already being copied by the governments of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, who recently announced a joint initiative to introduce the measure throughout the island of Ireland.

As Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee finalises its Stage 1 report on the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Bill, Mr Eadie highlighted the Scottish Tories’ previous demands that alcohol pricing be tackled on a UK-wide basis.

Mr Eadie, a Member of the Health and Sport Committee, said:

“David Cameron’s u-turn is extremely welcome.  He has finally brushed aside the lobbying of the alcohol industry and instead listened to the over-whelming support amongst police, the medical profession, the churches, all four chief medical officers across the UK, alcohol charities and many more.  It is time that the Scottish Tories did the same.

“While Health Spokesman during the last Bill’s passage through Parliament, Murdo Fraser repeatedly claimed there would be ‘booze cruises’ if it was introduced in Scotland and not in England – now, if he had his way, the alleged booze cruises would be travelling in the other direction.

“Every single argument that the Tories have made against minimum pricing has been comprehensively rebutted.  Their opposition to this ground-breaking policy is looking increasingly absurd – this is another line in the sand that Ruth Davidson should definitely be prepared to cross.”


Comments  

 
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Lamplighter
2012-03-05 20:01

Hmmm. I’ve never been a supporter of fixed minimum pricing for anything – I can still remember the effects of Resale Price Maintenance. And the general public were very much the poorer with that system of price control.

Anyway, I like cheap beer, and I don’t go mad or hing aboot the shoaps drinking it. Maybe real enforcement of existing laws for preventing abuse should have been tried before ‘minimum pricing’ became a plan.
 
 
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Harry.Shanks
2012-03-05 22:38

Quoting Lamplighter:

…I like cheap beer, and I don’t go mad or hing aboot the shoaps drinking it.



Lamplighter – I don’t murder people but I see the need for laws to try to deter those who do.

 
 
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Lamplighter
2012-03-06 09:55

Quoting Harry.Shanks:

Quoting Lamplighter:

…I like cheap beer, and I don’t go mad or hing aboot the shoaps drinking it.



Lamplighter – I don’t murder people but I see the need for laws to try to deter those who do.



So do I, who would disagree? – but those particular laws are pretty stringently enforced!

It’s the lower-level laws and regulations that are rather selectively NOT enforced which tend to be the blight on people’s everyday lives. Bring back the Burgh Courts!

 

 
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creag an tuirc
2012-03-06 13:46

Keep the Scots in a drunk stupor with cheap booze while we syphon off all their oil. It’s funny how Wastemonster are looking to do this now with their NHS privatization looming. Stage one of maximising profit me thinks.
 
 
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Fungus
2012-03-06 14:15

Lamplighter you will still have your cheap beer, maybe not as cheap but still cheap. This legislation is targeted at high alcohol low priced stuff drunk by neds. Like 3 litres of chemical cider at 8% by volume for £2.50 being sold in a supermarket near you. They get these concoctions made and bottled cheaply and use them as loss leaders.

Be glad it isn’t Labour proposing these laws or your coffee drinking days would be numbered.
 
 
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Lamplighter
2012-03-06 18:59

Ah well. I don’t like coffee and I only indulge in suicider when I’m in Zummerzet – just to mingle with the local artists groups, of course.

I’m away roon the shoaps noo, see if there’s ony cheap lager…
 
 
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Dundonian West
2012-03-07 13:46

creag an tuirc.”Keep the Scots in a drunk stupor with cheap booze while we syphon off all their oil.”

That is one of the FUNNIEST ‘tongue in cheek’ remarks I’ve read on Newsnetscotland in a long time.

Sorry for the 10 minute break—-one of the unionist party’s at the door,offering me Russian Scotch 95% proof,£1 a litre.

Bit suspicious—says “Made in England” in the small print,and I’ve bought a crate.

Says she can offer me ‘two for the price of one’ next week.
 

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