'Supermarkets' beer cheaper than bottled water'

Supermarkets are selling beer at a cheaper price than water, fuelling concern over their role in Britain's binge-drinking crisis. Despite repeated public health warnings, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda now offer lager at just 22p a can - less per litre than their own-brand-mineral water and cola, and cheap enough to allow someone to get drunk for just £1. Lager is now so cheap that the stores pay more in excise duties than they charge at the till. - Mail On Sunday​

A new coalition of medical experts will demand tough action this week on the sale of alcohol, including a 10 per cent rise in taxation and a ban on advertising drink products on TV before 9pm. The Alcohol Health Alliance, which includes several of the medical royal colleges, the British Liver Trust and the charity Alcohol Concern, will also call for greater regulation of the drinks industry and compulsory warnings about alcohol's harmful effects to be included in any form of drink advertising or promotion. But Mark Hastings of the British Beer and Pub Association said: "Given their objectives, the measures proposed by the Alcohol Health Alliance would increase the burden on taxpayers, further restrict personal freedoms and limit consumer choice and, at the same time, have no impact on alcohol misuse." - Observer​

After losing £174m on his Sainsbury's shares last week, property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz said: "We took a calculated risk. But obviously we had the credit crunch in the middle. In the short term we have lost money, but this is not the end of the world." He went on: "I'm not Bill Gates, but we have very deep resources. The fact is that we have just suffered a huge fall and we haven't sold a single share." The entrepreneur is reluctant to detail his financial affairs, but friends say the Sainsbury losses, albeit substantial, pale when compared with the £1bn in profits he has made during the past two years from the sale of investments including Pubmaster and Whyte & Mackay. - Sunday Times​

The Sunday People's self-proclaimed 'Man of the people' Eamonn Holmes writes: "Our town centres in the run-up to Christmas will be awash with teenagers putting their safety at risk by drinking too much. And when you see that it costs about the same to buy an alcopop or a can of lager as it does to get a bar of chocolate, is it any wonder we're breeding a nation of drunks? The relaxation of the licensing hours was a massive mistake and this Government is already paying the price with queues in A&E wards every weekend." - Sunday People​