Drink on the brink

My idea of binge drinking is going to a pub one or two days a week and drinking 8 or 9 alcoholic drinks. I don't know what the Government's idea of it is but today it's rumoured that in the upcoming budget there will be a tax hike on beer, wine and other common alcoholic drinks.

Of course, it's not a straightforward tax on these drinks. Its a tax that they claim will stop binge drinking which apparently is the root of all evil at the moment.

I entirely disagree with that. According to the Government, I am a binge drinker. So are everybody that I know. Other than being on the PC too much, I'm not antisocial. I don't commit crimes. I don't inflict myself on other people. I'm not a lout.

To be honest I can't think of the reason the Government has a bee in it's bonnet about binge drinking. It makes them a bucket load of tax revenue and increasing tax on alcohol will simply make the Government get more tax. A no-brainer really. Social drinkers like most people will continue to go to the pub on a Friday/Saturday night, and binge drinkers/alcoholics will not be affected.

They might suggest that a lot of crime is caused by alcohol fuelled thugs and they are probably right. But even after the tax increases I will still be able to walk into an off licence and walk out with a 3 litre bottle of strong cider for about £1.50. I don't think thugs are buying their alcohol in pubs, bars or nightclubs: you can get 6 litres of cider for the price of a bottle of beer in a nightclub.

A thug will be antisocial whether drunk or sober. Alcohol may cause the thug to go to extremes, but people don't suddenly become violent thugs because they have a couple of beers on a Friday night. They become violent thugs because they skipped school, probably have a single parent, have no prospects and have nothing to lose. I've said it before, but it's the Jeremy Kyle Generation.

I get the impression that the Government either has no idea what goes on, or they invent scenarios to which they refer to when ramming taxes up on things. Like petrol and other fuel and road taxes are being rammed up in the name of something that doesn't exist (climate change). Guns were banned after a lunatic shot up a school in Dunblane, causing gun clubs to be closed and all legal guns to be handed in. Illegal guns, of course, were not handed in and have become massively more common since and crimes involving guns have increased.

Local taxes have increased hugely to pay for services like the Police who don't seem to be arresting any real criminals any more, and to pay for rubbish collection which has gone from weekly to fortnightly and you now have to sort your own rubbish for recycling.

Taxing booze on the basis that thugs drink is just another farce. It simply means they will be even more angry and frustrated because their booze is more expensive.

So they will have to steal more to pay for it.