I should probably get myself worked up about the Scottish Government's latest proposals but I suppose that we shall have to accept them, if only for the sake of the greater good.
It does seem sad, however, that perfectly responsible 18 to 20 year-olds will be denied the delights of getting a carry-out to take home to watch the football on the telly. And what will happen to student parties? And the notion that, somehow, 18 to 20 year-olds will drink responsibly in pubs but cannot be trusted to buy alcohol in an off-licence seems daft.
Meanwhile, government will extend its grubby and interfering fingers into commerce by setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol (which, by the way, may be open to challenge under competition law) and by requiring supermarkets to establish separate alcohol tills (presumably on the basis that customers can be shamed into forgoing the purchase of the odd bottle of wine with their usual groceries).
It all smacks of Sunday Post authoritarianism - and we all know that Scotland will never be free until the last minister of the kirk is strangled with the last Sunday Post.
1 comment:
I entirely agree that we are becoming a neo-puritan state. I myself, stocking up on wine for a forthcoming celebration, was given the third degree by Tesco staff. Why was I buying ALL THIS? Was I going to drink it all myself? I would probably have been dragged before Kenny an Nicola if I had said yes.
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