"Ditching Diageo's drams is a Scot's duty"

[rlemkin]

An interesting comment article in the Independent which takes aim at Diageo and the SWA with regard to minimum alcohol pricing and calls for a boycott. If whisky wasn't owned by companies that mass produced cheap strong alcohol would they still oppose minimum pricing? http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/ditching-diageos-drams-is-a-scots-duty-9101550.html
_________________
Wee whisky rants and reviews

[bifter]

I saw that earlier. Cheap shot journalism IMHO.

Alcohol abuse is a complex issue that intersects with important precepts of liberty and choice and it is far from proven that pricing is any kind of panacea. I think it's an easy topic for politicians and the media to exploit and actually drags the debate away from more important things such as the social and cultural drivers behind our attitudes to alcohol.

That said, I don't doubt that Diageo and the SWA are acting purely out of self interest
_________________
"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[Quaich1]

[Crane]

Those of us that can afford to buy single malt whisky aren't going to solve the problems of those who buy cheap booze by boycotting single malt whisky. Something may well need done to tackle the drinking habits of some and the social problems it causes but me not enjoying my odd dram of single malt whisky isnt going to solve anything.

[albo]

I'm not sure minimum alcohol pricing is going to solve all the problems, or indeed any of them.

You could make the minimum price per unit £50,000 all it would do is drive the problem underground, people would start to make their own alcohol.

The people in society who want to get off their faces will do so one way or another, if supermarket alcohol becomes too expensive they will turn to 'other' means of doing so. The statistics on alcohol related deaths etc may well turn favourable, but what of other seeming unrelated statistics? Drug use / deaths? Crime figures? etc etc

There is wayyy more to this debate than simply upping the price of cider in the supermarket. There is no easy fix to the problem long term, but there is a way to massage the figures and use it as a political point scoring exercise.