'Supermarkets to sign voluntary 'responsible alcohol retailing' deal with government'

Retail giant Asda and brewing behemoth Heineken are to lead a "responsibility deal" with the government, ending price promotion in the entrances to supermarkets and reducing the alcoholic strength in drinks. The two companies have agreed to the proposals as part of one of the most wide-ranging pacts between the state and the retail sector. The voluntary agreement on alcohol and healthy living is likely to be announced on Tuesday by Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary. Other companies that have signed up to a more general responsibility deal to promote better living include Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Smirnoff producer Diageo, Waitrose and Mitchells and Butler, owner of the pub chain All Bar One. - Daily Telegraph​

A huge rise in the tax on beer in the Budget will call "time" on even more great British boozers, worried publicans fear. We can reveal that last year a total of 2,464 bars - that's 47 a week - shut, with London (484), the North West (352) and the Midlands (318) worst hit. Although 1,189 boozers opened in that time, it leaves a net loss of 1,275 pubs - or some 25 a week. Year-on-year tax rises on beer, the recession, supermarket competition and the legacy of the smoking ban are all helping to make life tough for pubs. - News of the World​

In Scotland, only five years after the ban was introduced, the extraordinary thing is that it is not regarded as out of the ordinary - in fact it is pretty much taken for granted. Scotland's example has been followed across Europe, with even hard-smoking countries such as Italy falling into line. Indeed it is, for most of us, so difficult to remember what it was like to come home with our hair and clothes stinking of smoke, that it comes as a shock when we stumble across smoking in public places abroad. - Dani Garavelli, writing in Scotland on Sunday​