'Government to unleash alcohol hit squads to cut booze abuse'

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to set up alcohol hit squads to curb violent drinkers. The plans are part of her key anti-crime strategy which will be unveiled tomorrow (Monday). In a bid to target those who go berserk on booze she will establish neighbourhood teams involving cops, GPs and social workers. They will swap information so neighours from hell can be targeted before they get out of hand. - Sunday People​

Metal detectors will be installed at the entrances to pubs and clubs in a bid to clamp down on knife and gun violence, the government will announce tomorrow. Police will also be able to use search wands - mobile metal detectors - to check revellers for weapons, under proposals to be unveiled by Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, in a violent crime action plan. - Sunday Telegraph​

Listen to the J D Wetherspoon boss Tim Martin, or ex-Asda chief Archie Norman, and you might think pubs and supermarkets were whiter than white. Parents, too, cannot escape the responsibility for a generation of feral, drunken sons and daughters. With six-pack cans at 33p each, less than the cost of a cuppa or a coffee, we need to raise prices, not slash them. - News Of The World (editorial)​

Tim Clarke, the chief executive of Mitchells & Butlers, the embattled pubs group, would be unlikely to stay on if the company completes an £11bn merger with Punch Taverns, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Clarke, who is understood to have a fractious relationship with Giles Thorley, his opposite number at Punch, was named as the prospective chairman of a combined group - which would be Britain's biggest pubs operator - in Punch's initial merger proposal outlined earlier this month. But people close to Clarke said this weekend that he would probably not accept such a post. - Sunday Telegraph​

Internet users will be able to buy cheap drink online regardless of a ministerial crackdown on cut-price alcohol. Web experts and retailers have revealed that Scottish ministers will be powerless to prevent supermarket chains and wine clubs offering alcohol promotions over the web, even if they are banned in stores. - Scotland On Sunday​

The UK's biggest names in retail, including Tesco and Morrisons, are rsuhing to stock 'lightweight' bottles of wine and beer in an attempt to offset the environmental impact of their businesses. Major brewers such as SABMiller and Scottish & Newcastle are also introducing lighter bottles. The UK wine industry uses a billion glass bottles every year. - Observer​

Brewing industry observers hope Anheuser-Busch (A-B) considers launching a rival bid for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) and crash what until now has been Carlsberg and Heineken's party. A-B has long coveted S&N's Russian brewing business, Baltic Beverage Holdings, and the pending takeover by Carlsberg and Heineken presents the US brewer with its best opportunity of acquiring it. - Sunday Telegraph​

And finally…

Angry regulars say celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has taken all the quirky character out of their local. Ramsay spent £5m renovating the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale, North London, which was built in 1859 and spent part of its early colourful history as a brothel. Caroline Smith, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said: "It's like he's taken all the quirky character out of it and the way he's pushed the prices up so much is just robbery. Before Gordon Ramsay took over, the meals averaged out at about £6 or £7. They now cost around £40. - Sunday Express​