Hamish Champ: There is a price for everything, including alcohol
It was inevitable that last week's health report from MPs on alcohol and society would have sections of the drinks industry in high dudgeon.
The blizzard that was the condemnation from large drink producers of proposals for the introduction of a minimum price per unit of alcohol arrived thicker and faster than the nation's gritters could cope with (er, what have you been drinking? Ed).
Every man jack o' them pointed towards what they deemed to be a far better solution to helping curb the country's apparent reckless enthusiasm for cheap booze.
Educating people concerning the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption - and doubtless the joys of moderation - was far preferable to hitting them over the head, or in the wallet, with a price hike, the drinks companies said, pretty much en masse.
Responding with considerable vigour to the MPs' report on Radio 4's The Today programme last Thursday was a nice man from the Wine & Spirits Trade Association (WSTA) who argued in what seemed to me to be a 'I'm-not-listening-look-I've-got-my-fingers-in-my-ears!' kindaway that the poorest among the population would be worst hit by a price rise in booze.
He asked - rather haughtily, I thought - whether it would be right to put the price of one of life's simple pleasures beyond a poor person's reach. Bless him, I thought; it's not profit he's worried about but the nation's underclass and their ability to enjoy the odd tipple. However, when it was asked of him whether he thought it right to price industrial white cider at 20p a unit he was less... effusive. Go figure.
But then here's the rub. Beyond being something that might affect a few of the nation's pubs I doubt many consumers from whichever economic band you care to mention give a tinker's cuss for the issue of cheap booze in supermarkets. I'm sure 'responsible' drinkers love the fact they can get a nice bottle of Pinot Noir or a mixed pack of bottled ales from a traditional family brewer for less than the price of a gallon of petrol in their local Tesco, just as much as those after something a little more... robust.
And lest licensees get excited at the prospect of supermarkets having to sell a unit of booze for 50p a go it wasn't all plain sailing for pubs either, as my colleague James Wilmore reported last week. And anyway, wouldn't a statutory price hike hit already pressured licensees, some asked? Quite possibly. But many seemed prepared to take that pressure on board.
The issue of irresponsible retailing is meanwhile still under scrutiny. A recent survey found that only one in seven pubs or off-licences caught selling booze to kids was prosecuted. This has to change, for the good of the decent pubs out there, as well as everything else.
The huge numbers of pubs that do do a great job in their communities ought to be recognised well beyond the confines of the trade press.
Meanwhile, educate the pros and cons of acohol by all means, but surely selling the stuff as cheaply as is the case in many off-licensed premises, supermarkets included, cannot go on as it is.
Of course simply hiking the price won't solve the UK's drinking problems overnight, nor will it have everyone flooding back to their local pub if that pub happens to be shite.
But it might be a step in the right direction for the health of the nation and of its pubs, mightn't it? In which case, where's the beef?
