Hamish Champ: Why not raise tax on off-trade booze?

Tesco's call for government action on alcohol pricing inevitably got the industry and anyone else interested in the issue in high dudgeon last week.

After what appeared to be a U-turn of toilet pipework proportions, Tesco's magnanimity was called into question by some who pointed out that the supermarket giant had been one of the worse offenders in terms of price cutting in recent weeks, a view with which Tesco declined to concur, needless to say.

Given the growing clamour for something to be done about the wreck and ruin that faces society thanks to alcohol, it seems fairly inevitable that when the Chancellor presents his budget in a few weeks time it will feature a duty rise on booze.

Labour is in a pickle on a number of fronts and will think it's responding to popular public opinion if it hikes up tax on alcohol to stem society's decline into sodden oblivion.

We all know such a policy isn't going to do the job for which it was intended, but when did governments necessarily do what was right, versus what they thought would please voters? They're politicians after all.

So howsabout this? If the government must​ raise tax on alcohol, why not do it on that stuff which is sold outside pubs?

The vast majority of people who allow alcohol to pass their lips are responsible consumers. Of those who aren't, I wouldn't mind waging my pristine copy of 'God Save The Queen' on seven inch vinyl that they get it from the usual local cornershop or supermarket suspects.

So give pubs - most of whom offer a responsible environment for the consumption of alcohol - a break and tax at a higher rate bottled beers, lagers and of course wines and spirits that get sold in the off-trade.

True, supermarkets and cornershops can still sell even these at low(er) cost, but they'll be taking a hit, which eventually may hurt enough for them to raise prices to reasonable levels for the kind of product they are retailing.