God Bless Britain!!!

Snickers Man

British Chancellor Osborne has abandoned the insane policy of the "price escalator" which pegs tax increases on alcohol to the inflation rate (sort of like a tracker mortgage in reverse) with regard to beer, although he is maintaining it for wine. He has in fact REDUCED the tax on beer.

THE MAN IS A GENIUS!!!!

Actually, no. That's not true. He is just employing some basic honest-to-goodness common sense.

This of course means that a body blow has been dealt to those numpties (mostly in the medical profession) who think that price increases are the way to tackle binge drinking and were lobbying hard to bring them in, pointing to the fact that Britain was going to follow suit so that it would be impossible for people to go beer bargain shopping over the border.

Now they will have to abandon that policy or else turn Newry into a Beer Hypermarket for the island as a whole.

God bless you governor!!! You're our best china plate and no mistake!!!!

Looking forward to the torrent of apoplectic letters in the Irish Times from "health service professionals" Must dig out that T-shirt with the "Your anger makes me happy" logo.
:D:D:D:D:D:D

Mint Sauce

So more people travel north to buy their beer, affecting irish (republic) sales, income, and jobs.

Yeah, lets celebrate that.

efb

It's Just pandering to the LCD voter. It's not very forward thinking at all

Snickers Man

irish-stew wrote: »

So more people travel north to buy their beer, affecting irish (republic) sales, income, and jobs.

Yeah, lets celebrate that.

With all due respect, read the OP

Now they will have to abandon that policy or else turn Newry into a Beer Hypermarket for the island as a whole.

My preference is for option A.

Just Like Heaven

Anybody who's pocket is seriously affected by a tax increase in cans of cheap lager has bigger problems to be worrying about.

Snickers Man

efb wrote: »

It's Just pandering to the LCD voter. It's not very forward thinking at all

Nothing "Forward thinking" about it. It's just basic common feckin sense.

Sergeant

The price of a couple of cans of lager or whether some stoner can buy weed legally aren't major ticket items. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is running a 7% budget deficit. I'm sure that is seen as a slightly more pressing concern at this stage.

ejmaztec

efb wrote: »

It's Just pandering to the LCD voter. It's not very forward thinking at all

They've obviously got a grudge against people with plasma screens.:(

Snickers Man

Sergeant wrote: »

The price of a couple of cans of lager or whether some stoner can buy weed legally aren't major ticket items. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is running a 7% budget deficit. I'm sure that is seen as a slightly more pressing concern at this stage.

Wanna bet that there won't be a whinging letter in the IT, and perhaps the Indo, from an outraged "Health service Professional" before the week is out?

I can almost guarantee there will be.

And a few outraged calls to Joe about it too.

Mint Sauce

Snickers Man wrote: »

With all due respect, read the OP


My preference is for option A.

Well if Newry is turned into a Beer Hypermarket, then more will travel north to stock up.

Nodin

Snickers Man wrote: »

Wanna bet that there won't be a whinging letter in the IT, and perhaps the Indo, from an outraged "Health service Professional" before the week is out?

I can almost guarantee there will be.

And a few outraged calls to Joe about it too.

Joeeeee????????????

The dutch gold, joe, its worse than the headshops joe, the off-licences, joe, there was never any drinkin in this country before the rap music joe, its the foriegners turned us to booze joe, save us joe, you were sent by god joe.......

Jimoslimos

Snickers Man wrote: »

This of course means that a body blow has been dealt to those numpties (mostly in the medical profession) who think that price increases are the way to tackle binge drinking and were lobbying hard to bring them in, pointing to the fact that Britain was going to follow suit so that it would be impossible for people to go beer bargain shopping over the border.

What's your problem with people in the medical profession? Afraid they might know more than you? And "numpties"?? I fcukin hate that word. Time to put down the tabloids methinks.

Death and Taxes

irish-stew wrote: »

Well if Newry is turned into a Beer Hypermarket, then more will travel north to stock up.

Only until the government down here see sense, the joy of the EU is we are free to shop where we choose, I will shop in Newry if it is cheaper because they understand the law of diminishing returns, something the Blueshirt/Stickey alliance in power down here clearly dont!

BraziliaNZ

Yay. Cheap Red Stripe and Tyskie for all.

Snickers Man

Jimoslimos wrote: »

What's your problem with people in the medical profession? Afraid they might know more than you? And "numpties"?? I fcukin hate that word. Time to put down the tabloids methinks.

I will happily concede that people in the medical profession know more than me about human physiology, how a body works, how substances affect the working of a body and how to treat it when something goes wrong.

What I do NOT accept is that they have any more than a layman's knowledge of how to go about influencing behaviour in a society but they don't seem to realise that.

Most of what the medical profession has to say about how to tackle the particular problems of alcohol consumption in this country is wrong headed, dishonest, easily refutable with statistical evidence and seems to be based on an assumption that they have the God given right to pontificate about something that is not in their area of expertise and yet must be taken as if it were.

ejmaztec

Jimoslimos wrote: »

What's your problem with people in the medical profession? Afraid they might know more than you? And "numpties"?? I fcukin hate that word. Time to put down the tabloids methinks.

A lot of doctors ignore their own advice where drinking's concerned.:(

Numpty's a great Scottish invention, like battered Mars Bars.:P

Jimoslimos

Snickers Man wrote: »

I will happily concede that people in the medical profession know more than me about human physiology, how a body works, how substances affect the working of a body and how to treat it when something goes wrong.

What I do NOT accept is that they have any more than a layman's knowledge of how to go about influencing behaviour in a society but they don't seem to realise that.

Most of what the medical profession has to say about how to tackle the particular problems of alcohol consumption in this country is wrong headed, dishonest, easily refutable with statistical evidence and seems to be based on an assumption that they have the God given right to pontificate about something that is not in their area of expertise and yet must be taken as if it were.

Pure and utter tripe.

Public health is a lot more than a doctor trained in human physiology and how the body works. It encompasses a wide range of areas from epidemiology, statistics, environmental health, behavioural experts, etc. And yes they generally do know a lot more than the 'layman' about influencing behaviour.

Snickers Man

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Pure and utter tripe.

Public health is a lot more than a doctor trained in human physiology and how the body works. It encompasses a wide range of areas from epidemiology, statistics, environmental health, behavioural experts, etc. And yes they generally do know a lot more than the 'layman' about influencing behaviour.

They don't show it when it comes to the problems of alcohol abuse. Most of what they say is nonsense.

They say price rises discourage alcohol abuse.

The evidence is overwhelming that the countries, in Europe anyway, with the most expensive alcohol have the most dangerous consumption patterns. (Britain, Ireland, Sweden)

They say "normalising alcohol consumption" is dangerous and should be discouraged. So instead they recommend a situation which far from "Normalising alcohol consumption" actually helps to "Normalise" dangerous drinking patterns.

Just wait for them to get started in the letters pages. I can see the steam coming out their ears already.

Plazaman

And me just about to give up drinking due to my raging alcoholism and now this. Curses.

Jimoslimos

Snickers Man wrote: »

The evidence is overwhelming that the countries, in Europe anyway, with the most expensive alcohol have the most dangerous consumption patterns. (Britain, Ireland, Sweden)

You do see the obvious flaw in your argument? Correlation does not equal causation. If that was the case you could equally make the argument that as they are all Northern European countries that the cold weather is somehow responsible for dangerous drinking habits

Snickers Man

fewtinsoffroth wrote: »

Anybody who's pocket is seriously affected by a tax increase in cans of cheap lager has bigger problems to be worrying about.

Cheap lager is not the issue. Our "discount beer" prices are actually already cheaper or as cheap as those in quite a few other EU countries.

According to statistics gathered by, wait for it, the World Health Organisation, Ireland has the most expensive or the second most expensive selling price for alcohol among EU states in four out of the five categories it mentions.

(How's that "just make it more expensive" strategy working for you, guys?)


The exception is "discount beer" ie the Dutch Gold et al market where we are only the fourth most expensive behind Holland, Estonia and France. And in that category we are not that much more expensive than many others.

So. Newry won't be the port of call for those stocking up on Dutch gold and REd Stripe. It will be where we'll go for our Carlsberg and Lowenbrau.

Snickers Man

Jimoslimos wrote: »

You do see the obvious flaw in your argument? Correlation does not equal causation. If that was the case you could equally make the argument that as they are all Northern European countries that the cold weather is somehow responsible for dangerous drinking habits

Ah, the usual argument of those whose prejudices are not supported by facts.

Correlation does not ALWAYS equal causation. And the skill in interpreting the FACTS revealed by statistics into TRUTH is a significant one, which requires a modicum of honesty on the part of the interpreter.

But an aggregate of correlations tend to reveal certain irrefutable truths about what is causing them.

And yes. The climate IS a contributory factor to our social behaviour. As it is to any society's. Don't get too many terrace cafes in Ireland, do we?

The Barefoot Pizza Thief

They made Ozzy a Chancellor??