Is the price of alcohol set to double?
A report by Prof Sir Liam Donaldson will be issued over the coming days as the UK drinks industry is put under the spotlight. Among the recommendations in the report will be a suggestion by Prof Sir Liam Donaldson that alcohol prices are increased with each unit of alcohol having a minimum sales price of 50p. This would have a significant impact upon many of the cheaper, strong alcoholic drinks in various supermarkets and could see prices more than doubled in some circumstances.
While there has been uneasy about the cost of alcohol available in supermarkets for some time, with alcoholic beverages often cheaper than bottled water over the Christmas period, there is a feeling that we are moving towards a nanny state. More and more the government are telling us what to do, when to do it and what price to pay and while the move to increase the price of alcohol will have a massive positive impact on the health of the nation there are concerns about the way in which it is being instigated.
It is worthwhile remembering that the UK government takes substantial tax from all alcoholic drink sales in the UK and these have been increasing year on year for some time now. It would appear on one hand that the government is happy to take your money in taxes but on the other it is not happy to sell you the product in the first place. Is this fair?
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