More alcohol
Well it's Friday night.The suggestion by the health minister, which has been endorsed by the Police, that alcohol taxes need to rise to curb binge drinking is, I think, doomed to failure. It's not that I don't think price matters - the falling real price of alchol must be a factor in the increased consumption, unless it is unlike most other goods. It's more the amount you might have to increase it by to curb consumption is probably beyond what's politically feasible. That's why it's different from cigarettes, where taxes are set to curb all consumption by all people.
The Lib Dems suggest (the BBC's reporting not a direct quote) "raising tax on damaging high-alcohol drinks, such as super-strength lagers, while lowering the duty on less harmful drinks". But there's a four letter word which starts with 'W' and ends in 'E' which I think young people have realised offers quite a good bang for your buck. In many pubs now you can get 14% ABV red wine for £5/£6 a bottle (older readers - you really can, I've seen it - in fact I've bought it, it's Jacobs Creek so not even terrible), which is 57p per unit (at £6). This is cheaper than alcopops, and it's more potent. £10 gets you 17.5 units of alcohol, which is probably enough for almost anyone.
The duty apparently on this is £1.29, so even if you doubled it to £2.58 you wouldn't make a huge difference in the selling price - £6.29 or £7.29. I suppose you could tax at £5 a bottle, but then you might start annoying your restaurant trade.
posted by Matthew @ 10/27/2006 08:23:00 PM
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