http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081122/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_drinking_deaths Will the nanny state madness ever end?
*yawn* Some MPs have called for a ban on happy hour. Others have called for a ban on supermarkets selling cheap booze. Neither is likely to get anywhere. But that doesn't matter, since headlines are all said MPs really want...
I once saw a t-shirt with a map of the UK with a Union Jack. It had a caption of "Were #1". I think about it every time I see a post by dan.
I once saw the cover of a Fatboy slim album and it made me think of you. Pity its not a bit balder....
Not to quibble, but maybe nobody was noticing before? If only those headlines could be made to work against those MPs . . .
Not sure about happy hour, Brown is just about miserable enough to try that one. The Supermarkets however is a complete non-starter. It wouldn't take long for someone to point out that this would cause more people to buy alcohol from mainland Europe and therefore a drop in the duty paid into the treasury coffers, for the Government to think again. But of course a ban on happy hour would never happen in America would it? http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_/ai_7984043 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_20050428/ai_n14605092 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9407E5DC1238F932A25751C1A962948260
Somehow I've always had the impression that the percentage of people who drink in pubs is higher in the UK than it is in the US, so such a ban would have a greater impact there than here.
Well, nothing that would ban all Americans from being happy at the same time, thankfully. We tend to leave police powers to the states; unless of course Congress gets a bug up its ass, in which case it'll cheat and impose a federal law, usually via the commerce clause or something. Just some cities and states here and there that have expermented with 'temperance' - I recall around 20 years ago it was popular in some places. The big thing in NY around that time was a (failed) initiative to change closing time at the boozers from 4:00 AM to 2 AM.
Tesco's have already called the MPs bluff on this, pointing out they cannot legally agree to increase prices with other supermarkets due to price fixing laws, and have asked Brown to change the law so they can do so. As for the duty drop, it hasn't stopped them increasing the cost of cigarettes (I've worked with a couple of people who're quite well off due to that...) or look at increasing VAT to 22.5% next year - when the personal import limit rises to £100 in December! Oh, incidentally, any attempt to stop subsidized drink promotions won't apply to the House of Commons bar
Of course, OH doesn't work with anyone who goes over to France once a month and brings back booze and baccy for distribution to select, careful customers... Hell, go down to Whitecross Market at the fringes of the City any day of the week... if Customs were really intent on cracking down, they could pick up dozens of malefactors.
Unless I've missed something they're the only supermarket to do so though. Given they have the biggest share of the market, any forced increases wouldn't effect them as much as the others. I can't see the likes of ASDA to be as happy with such a proposal and therefore far more likely to fight it. The need for a possible increase in VAT next year is a very good reason why they would want to protect their duty on alcohol atm IMO. With previous duty increases we haven't been in the same financial predicament as we are now. If the Government do announce a drop in VAT to 15% this week, are they really going to want to lose out in other areas? Maybe when the dust has settled they might do but now, I'm not so sure.
No doubt, but if they did it so booze was at least as expensive in supermarkets as it is pubs, they'd also have the entire brewing industry onside... I'm not sure the likes of ASDA or Sainsbury's could really challenge that. If they increase VAT next year, they're going to lose out massively on it anyway. As I said, the personal import allowance goes up in December, which means anything around a £100 quid will be cheaper to import than to buy in the UK. That's going to kill off a rather large slice of UK retail sales, as people buy online from abroad and have it shipped here. The one thing this government has shown is a complete inability to manage it's finances, so expectations of a sane response from the Prime Mentalist and his merry men will be dashed. I really think we're looking at ~4 million unemployed and IMF loans before 2015 if Labour win the next election, ~2 million unemployed and significantly higher personal taxes if the Tories do it. Either way, the next decade's going to be pretty unpleasant.
Not particularly, government policy dictates the state of the nation as somewhere to do business with the tax system, rate of debt and workforce. We've a horrific amount of debt to pay off, around 3 times more than the government claims (around a 100 billion of PFI is off the books. Sort of like securitization vehicles really.), a very monolithic tax base (we relied a great deal on the financial sector for tax receipts. Those evil fat cat bonuses paid for quite a lot of hospital beds) and businesses either going bust or leaving the UK for more tax-friendly havens. Should the VAT rate go up next year to pay for this years cut we'll see the likes of Argos cutting back massively. In the short term we're seriously fucked, I honestly can't see a way out for Labour. We were already in rocky waters when the credit crunch hit, and Browns ludicrous lies (which sadly seem to work) about it all being the Americans fault just displays what a spin-based piece of shit he is. Without making the UK a business haven and drawing in massive amounts of investment to ensure high employment and tax receipts, something has got to give. The last 3 months have seen a frightening run on the pound (the inward investment of the last 3 years was reversed in that period) which will have an inflationary effect before long. Newsnight just ought to hire the Grim Reaper for their market reports, and have him just say 'DOOM' in a deep, gravelly voice.
