Star comment: Price of booze is a real issue
In times when folk are watching the pennies, alcohol is a considerable bargain.
.
The AHA is not saying this in celebration. It is coming from an entirely different place – to highlight alcohol-related harm and influence those in power to act to tackle damage caused by alcohol misuse.
Among its report's findings are that for the price of a standard off-peak cinema ticket – £8.24 – consumers can buy 7.5 litres, which is 13 pints, of the cheapest white cider.
This all has overtones of Hogarth's 18th century engraving Gin Lane, in which an inscription over the entrance of a gin cellar reads: Drunk for a Penny, Dead Drunk for Two Pence, Clean Straw for Nothing. It was used by supporters of an Act which aimed to reduce the consumption of spirits.
So the problems of drink, for health, morality and behaviour, have long taxed those in power. And they do face a stubborn problem, in that a lot of people like a drink, and do not cause any trouble when they do so.
Go into a supermarket in Shropshire or Mid Wales and you will find rows and rows of wine bottles on the shelves, some on offer, some at attractive prices. It is one way Britons have become more European and, dare we say it, just a little more like the French.
It is tempting to feel that the underlying problem is not the alcohol as such, but the age, attitude and temperament of those who are drinking it. In this respect younger Britons are less like the French. Far too many of them do not savour wine, but gulp down booze in large quantities with the aim of getting legless.
The AHA clearly holds the view that cheap alcohol is a curse and that putting up prices, especially of the lagers and ciders so popular with the young, would be one way of curbing alcohol abuse and sparing people damage to their health.
Peer pressure also has to be part of the mix. There cannot have been that many occasions in the past when a young drinker on a night out in Shropshire with his or her mates has said: "No more drink for me, I can't afford it."
The AHA's study needs to be complemented by follow-up research to investigate whether a hike in prices would achieve the desired effect.
