Now They Come For Drink

I told you I bloody told you !First of all they came for cigarettes and you did nothing , now they are coming for drink with a raft of nannying proposals from the SNP. Its all according to the numbers . First the initiative will be rolled out in some location deemed to have a special problem , where it is most likely to meet a low resistance . Think speed cameras or regional assemblies , in this case drunken Scotland . Getting it in in a devolved part if the UK produces a sense of inevitability , those opposed to it begin to look selfish .Then get your tame academics to fiddle the figures and start the building up the case. Base it not on nannying but on the supposed effect on others . Sure enough what should pop out of the hat today but some fatuously thin “research” based on Alaska….
Researchers reviewed the impact of two tax increases on alcohol in Alaska on the number of deaths from alcohol-related diseases including liver disease, oral cancers and alcohol poisoning ,by a 29 per cent reduction in alcohol-related deaths – 23 deaths a year. The second tax rise was followed by a further 11 per cent drop in deaths”
Next I see next but some rancid SNP toss pot calculating mythic cuts to NHS expenditure sick days and a veritable economic bonanza that will accrue from their anti drinking laws not to say saving the life of a “battered child “ etc. . The truth is whatever we do effects everyone ,if I walk down the street I spread colds that are massive “Killers “every Winter why not have a law against that .We will not get any reference to the 'landscape of risk ' (aka a sense of proportion )which would make the whole thing the imposture it is . Neither will a word be said by the left who are only for Liberty in the sense of 'Liberty to receive state vouchers others are at Liberty to donate'.
This is the ‘thin end of the wedge’ , I appreciate price controls might temporarily help pubs ( 80% of people according to a survey feel community values are under threat due to six pubs a day closing …) but in the end they mean evil to the embattled ' battle crusiser' . They are places of debate ,of meeting of freedom and the state hates them with a venomous instinct it can scarcely conceal. This is how its started for smoking , it may take time but before long Carloline heart-of-Flint will be talking about 'light touch policing 'of the no drinking in pubs ,law.Thats right ,mount your tobbogans ladies and gentelmen we are about to go down the "slippery slope".Weeeeeeeee