Don’t blame licensees for bingeing menace

It would seem everyone agrees far too much alcohol is being drunk, too many people are getting drunk and all this drinking is costing the NHS far too much.

Who can disagree when one sees images of drunken people being rescued on our high streets on Friday and Saturday nights, flailing in their own vomit?

It is clear to the editor of the Daily Telegraph and others that rogue licensees are to blame, end of story. No mention of the huge amount of alcohol obtained at supermarkets and garages, where cheap supplies can be bought and drunk without supervision at almost any time of night or day.

How long will it be before someone in the NHS notices how many people are having joint implants and how expensive they are?

Will there then be a recommendation that people should not take more than 10 minutes of exercise daily so as not to wear out joints that might need replacement? There might be a calculation of the cost of sports injuries followed by a gym tax.

How long will it be before someone points out that there is already a gym tax, an alcohol tax, a fuel tax, (called income tax, national insurance, alcohol duty, fuel duty, VAT and the many other ways the Government steals our money) and that, while treatment of whatever sort, free at the point of delivery, is available, they can dictate to us how we must live our lives.

The NHS was the start of the nanny state but if we aren’t careful the whole tax regime will be geared to its funding and we will not have any of our own money to spend. We will work all our lives for an allowance or vouchers or credits on our card, without the bother of taxing us. At what point will we realise that we have become part of a reverse takeover by a dictatorial, socialist/communist system that older generations gave their lives to prevent?

Those binge drinkers who puke on our streets at weekends should not cause the demonisation of everyone that enjoys a glass or two with friends.

Even Alastair Campbell, in a recent TV show, accepted that much of the binge-drinking damage is done not in pubs but by cheap booze.
Are we going to be able to ram this point home to the British Medical Association and the Government before pubs are taxed and legislated out of existence?

I hope so, but being an old cynic, my gIass has gone from half-full to half-empty without a drop passing my lips.