Minimum alcohol pricing is nigh

Outrage might be a strong word. Annoyance would be a better one for anybody I talked to face-to-face. It was never going to become an election issue because the opposition supported the government on its introduction. If the opposition had opposed MUP we would at least have had an alternative

As far as I am aware no political party or major organisation opposes MUP. I am however open to correction on that issue

Just because other lines should be drawn doesn't mean we can't try to tackle this issue.

Of course, the AAI should be partly funded by the Government. It is the government's role to protect its citizens, and part of that is to try, in a very small and limited way, to offset the massive marketing and advertising budgets of the companies selling these products to try to give some balance.

When was the last time you saw an ad for Guinness showing a fight outside a pub, a domestic abuse case or a death by a drink driver? Never, because they want to sell the idea that there is nothing but laughter and happiness from their product. The AAI are trying to counter this.

That you don't happen to like the message does not mean the message shouldn't get out there. Health costs, domestic costs, police costs, road deaths and traffic accidents - all these are massive drains on our resources and it should be shown repeatedly that beyond the beautiful people in well lit pubs, behind the sports washing, there is a darker side to alcohol that, unfortunately, far too many are impacted by.

I'm sorry to be that guy but 100% of car crashes are not caused by cars. 100% of car crashes involve cars, they're mainly caused by drivers, unless they have become sentient like the cartoon.

I'm against MUP and feel that the advertising of 0.0 alcohol should be allowed. We have seen a massive increase in the consumption of 0.0 drinks and a reduction in sales of alcoholic beverages so it could be argued that this advertising has been successful.

You are correct, every political party supported the govts mandate on MUP. Bizarre I know

Pub owners were largely rubbing their hands and licking their lips at the thought of MUP as well but arguably their celebrations were cut short when people decided to spend less in the pubs because the supermarkets got more expensive

But if there was no cars there would be no car crashes. So if we stop advertising cars, people stop buying them there will be no car crashes. The Anti-alcohol industry will make the same argument about beer

There may well be some truth that Zero was started as a clever way of getting around advertising/sponsorship restrictions.

But, accidentally or not, as an advertising campaign it has worked. The products seem popular, anecdotally have good sales & decent feedback re taste/quality and crucially are widely available (if it was all fake just for advertising the product would be barely on actual sale).

It seems on the face of it a good news story that AAI should be crowing about. Those evil drink companies have diversified into non-evil products and have got decent market share. Everybody happy, no obvious downside.

Jesus are we really back to pointing out this had nothing to do with health and it all is originally a scheme to try push people back into pubs, AAI jumped on it but they were far from the only people pushing for it, both vintners associations as well as the supermarkets lobbied heavily for it and the Vintners were the original petitioners for it, do you really think they were doing it to try benefit the health of the nation?

And yes alcohol is a problem in drinking driving but guess what people who drive drunk are gonna drive drunk regardless of the price of the booze because they are fvcking alcoholics and time and again it has been proven addicts do not care about the price of getting their fix so what will increasing the price actually achieve when it comes to problem drinking in this case? Sweet! Fvck! All!.

If the Government honestly cared about solving the addiction issue they would have increased excise and ring fenced funding to help addiction services. But they didn't, what they did was give more money to the people producing the thing you say is the problem. Do you see how that makes no sense using a health argument?

Also the likes of AAI were spouting in support of MUP that Ireland was awash with cheap alcohol while we were already one of the most expensive countries in Europe and that our drinking problem was getting worse while our consumption figures had been on a steady measured decline for a decade at the time. They quite simply lied to push their what ultimately amounts to a prohibitionist agenda and quite simply prohibition doesn't work, we saw that in the US in the 1920s and we see it everyday on our streets and around the world with the so called "war on drugs".

None of this has to do with health whatsoever.

You guys keep shifting the goalposts.

The post I replied to called the AAI oddball that spouted nonsense.

I pointed out that that wasn't the case as we can all agree on the harmful impacts of alcohol.

To claim that all drink drivers are alcoholics is absurd. One pint puts you over the limit. It's the culture that leads to drink driving. I'm fine, sure I only had one and didn't I eat something as well.

You need to separate your hatred of AAI from the facts.

AAI see alcohol as a health issue. They don't see MUP as a solution but paet of it and it was jumped on by the Vitners and the main brands as a way to protect themselves. Supermarkets also see the benefits as they pocket more profit and no longer have to compete.

Your ire is directed at the wrong people. AAI are a fringe group. Oddball is probably a view many hold. The real people behind this are the big brands, vitners and Supermarkets.

The likes of Heineken were facing price competition from smaller brands and MUP wipes out that competition. Its helps vitners, or they thought it would, as price difference would be reduced.

"Nothing but laughter and happiness"

I love to drink, whiskey/brandy/poitin and beer. I rarely do but love the actual taste and the short term mild altering feeling.

Generally in a pub/party everyone is merry and it's easy to believe there is no harm to a few pints/few drops whatever.

I had a long term believe that alcohol consumption was very much good for you at low levels of consumption.

Andrew Hubermam put together a podcast on the subject a few years back and dealt primarily with low level consumption; bottle of beer 5-6 nights of the week, 3 or 4 beers twice a week.

My kind of drinking.

I'll post link below but two standout effects were the effect on HPA axis; while mood lifted in the short term low level drinking lower mood for rest of week and elevated resting cortisol levels.

Increase in cancer risk.

I still drink, even less than before, but I'm doing it with eyes wide open.

You are correct, every political party supported the govts mandate on MUP. Bizarre I know

Thats because there is no right wing in Ireland, it's all left wing and lefty populism ( no fan of trump and all that malarkey by the way)

Remember the family referendums last year, no opposition to that either SF and Mary lou rowed in behind it even though it was resoundingly rejected by voters

I don't think the supermarkets supported it - by supermarkets I mean the big players Tesco, Dunnes, Germans etc.

It was a useful advertising tool for them - may have been below or at-cost selling but it got bodies in shops and whilst you are buying your at-cost Christmas trays you are also using your 'savings' to buy high-margin Pringles, chocolates etc.