Saturday, December 15, 2012

This is a lie

David Cameron lived up to one if his nicknames the other day when he made an astonishing pronouncement about supermarkets and binge drinking, that nickname being Camoron.
Telegraph.
Middle class families are being charged more for every day food in supermarkets to subsidise cheap alcohol deals for binge drinkers, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister claimed that “a family with a reasonable drinking habit” was “actually subsidising the binge drinker” because supermarkets were increasing the price of food to fund cuts in the cost of wine, beer and cider.
The comments, to a group of factory workers in north Wales, provoked astonishment from supermarkets last night. The British Retail Consortium said the remarks were “nonsense” and demanded to know what the evidence was for the claims, while a spokesman for Sainsburt said the Prime Minister was "plain wrong".. But Downing Street stuck to its guns, citing an article from a medical journal in 2009 by a leading liver specialist which suggested supermarkets were overcharging for food to pay for cheap drink.
The clue is in the last bit in which a leading liver specialist 'suggested' supermarkets were overcharging on food. No doubt the leading liver specialist checked with the supermarkets or simply presumed that supermarkets were stupid enough to sell a popular product at a loss continually.
Thing is whilst supermarkets will occasionally put a 'loss leader' into their stores, it's likely to be spread over a wide range of products and is more likely to be a buy one get one free and may just be bread rolls or yoghurt's. What they don't tend to do is discount cheap alcohol, particularly at the bottom of the range or spirits.
Andrew Opie, the food director of the British Retail Consortium, said: “This is nonsense. What evidence? The Government’s own figures show alcohol prices rising at exactly the same rate as food prices.
Nonsense indeed though it's a bit milder than my thoughts about it being a blatant lie thrown out because the powers that be hate the idea that people might be enjoying themselves a bit too much or that somehow or other if they keep putting the price up people won't find something else (probably illegal) to help them forget how hard life is a and just what a bunch of bastards the political classes are. Prohibition doesn't work, never has, never will the man in a van who sell cheap ciggies has proved that, he'll no doubt branch out into booze if the government makes it worth his while. I expect booze cruises to start up soon enough as well, if minimum pricing goes through, the retailers of Calais will be rubbing their hands at the idiocy of the UK government.
Research carried out by Sheffield University for the Government has showed that a 45p minimum would reduce the consumption of alcohol by 4.3 per cent, leading to 2,000 fewer deaths and 66,000 hospital admissions after 10 years.
The number of crimes would drop by 24,000 a year as well, researchers suggested.
The clue is in the last word...
Suggested...
The twats don't know but are saying stuff the government wants to hear, bit like climate change and the other green bollocks that the government use as tax grabs, because that's all minimum alcohol pricing is, in the end if it's government it's a tax grab.

10 annotations:

Anonymous said...

So often politicians (of all shades) get away with out and out lies, because no one challenges them, or they have a friendly press.

This crap Cameron talks is plainly nonsense, as, just like you say, there are bargains on a wide variety of products every week. That includes alcohol, but it also includes washing power (half price in Morrison's, unlike whisky with £3 off a litre), yoghurt (2 for one), Cadbury's (8 60p bars for £2) and HP sauce (1/3 off).

All that said, we have to do something about binge drinking. On Friday and Saturday nights our town centres in all the UK countries are no go areas for people who aren't drunk as skunks.

Early Saturday mornings is disgusting as you pick your way through vomit and the remains of take away meals.

My friend, a doctor in E + A says that the place goes non-stop with queues down the corridors for drink related injury. And domestic violence is out of hand.

I really don't know what we can do, but as a person who rarely drinks, I'm sick of not being able to go anywhere at a weekend without being confronted with out of control drunks, of all ages and both sexes.

However, as I said, I agree, Cameron is a liar. What on earth would a Bullingdon boy know about the price of food in supermarkets, or cheap booze?

He probably washes his feet in Veuve Cliquot Brut, while drinking Krug Clos d'Ambonnay 1995.

English Pensioner said...

If they are subsidising the drink, they are still selling their food at cheaper prices than our local "farmers' market"
With no overheads worth talking of, no middleman, one would expect food to be cheaper at the market, but it's not, and it doesn't look as fresh as the Supermarket either.
Our only complaint about the supermarkets is their "two for the price of one" and similar offers, which are blatant lies.

Durotrigan said...

I think QM that there can be little doubt that the minimum alcohol pricing approach is merely a ruse employed to ratchet up indirect taxation still further. I don't drink a great deal, and forcing this measure through will not compel me to drink less, but it will of course mean that I will have to pay more for my beer, wine and gin. This will probably be the case for most consumers. As for alcoholics, like any addicts, they will continue to find ways to pay for their habit, but it will simply cost them more.

wiggiatlarge said...

English Pensioner has hit on a point I made some time (years ago) about farmers markets, thinking they were a good way of getting first class produce at reasonable prices I went to a couple only to br confronted with very high prices for average produce, having cut out the middle man and with much lower overheads I concluded they were taking the p---.

Anonymous said...

Raise the drinking age to 21

Quiet_Man said...

Or just mind their own business and let us sort things out for ourselves.

Antisthenes said...

Being interested in history I pick up bits of information that leads me to observe that the present does not learn from past mistakes or learn how to avoid those mistakes. I see a pattern in what is happening in the West today that in the past lead to the demise of societies. What I see are similar symptoms one of which is the decline of standards and values in society illustrated by incompetence, corruption and continual deceit and obfuscation. The most observable manifestations of this are in the MSM and politics. That they all tell lies and are manipulative is not a reflection of the individual but of society as a whole and indicates that that society has come to the end of it's usefulness. What in fact is occurring is the end part of the rise and fall of a civilisation as abhorrent as that idea may sound it is inevitable.In the past when a society fell the result was more often than not terminal however today this may not be the case as technologically and infra-structurally we are more advanced and the shock may well be better cushioned and reconstruction of a better society more possible.

On a parting note something more in keeping with what is in the heart of this blogger. Before continuing I must say I am not a member of the EDF or have any thoughts about joining mainly because I am welsh and also geographically it would be inappropriate as I currently reside in Canada. However I am an avid reader of your blogs and in the main agree with them. To continue another symptom that can denote the coming demise of a society is the disruption of that societies borders by large movements of people across those borders by people who mostly have very different cultures and ethics to that of the indigenous people.

Anonymous said...

Overheard in a restaurant:

"Food and household stuff is far too cheap nowadays. That's why so many people are fat. If they could barely afford their basic shopping, they wouldn't have anything left over to buy chips or burgers, or booze."

... this from someone preparing to tuck into her terrine of fruits de mer.

Monty

Anonymous said...

Stonyground says:

I am reading this with a really nice pint of home-brewed beer in my hand. It cost about 35p.

I am in full agreement with the OP, our PM is an idiot. In an ideal world the MSM would do their effing jobs and call him out on his witless remarks. His stupid claims should be being ridiculed on the front page of every newspaper.

Anonymous@December 15, 2012 3:54 PM

You haven't really thought that through have you? You know, with regard to what the actual consequences would be.

Anonymous said...

I must disagree with the last paragraph "the tw@ts DO know", how else would they keep their carriage of the tax slurping gravy train on the rails!