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Friday, 29th August 2008

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Fresh attack on SNP's alcohol plans ahead of parliament debate



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SCOTTISH Government plans to raise the minimum age for buying alcohol in supermarkets and off-licences came under fresh attack today.
As MSPs prepared to debate the SNP administration's strategy on alcohol misuse this afternoon, Liberal Democrats launched a petition against the proposal to outlaw off-sales to 18-21 year olds.

A student-led Coalition Against Raising the Drinking Age in Scotland (CARDAS) claims thousands of young people have already signed its petition against the move.

Labour called for a toughening up of the existing law against selling drink to underage customers instead.

Other measures in the government strategy, unveiled last week, include minimum pricing per unit of alcohol, and making some pubs, clubs and off-licences pay a "social responsibility fee" to help meet the cost of drink-fuelled anti-social behaviour.

Lib Dem health spokesman Ross Finnie today launched an online petition against raising the age for off-sales, describing the move as "totally misguided".

He said: "It will do nothing to improve relations between government and young people. Indeed, it could do quite the reverse."





The full article contains 189 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

 
1

,

25/06/2008 12:17:45
Comment Removed By Administrator
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2

I love to eat Sellotape,

25/06/2008 13:31:06
Comment Not Removed By Administrator
Reason:
3

Epicuras,

25/06/2008 13:43:42
i don't think anybody will mind about raising the age for off sales to 21 - that'll mean most 18/19 year olds will still be able buy booze as who knows how old kids are nowadays - it'll just stop the 15/16 year olds who can pass for 18 but not 21
but the minimum price per unit - think again, it won't make any difference to the price of bucky, white extra strong cider or alcopops according to the newespaper reports when it was first mooted, but just raise the price of normal booze - and who'll get the extra money - dodgy politicians or greedy retailers/producers?
it's long past time when politicians did what they were elected to do - represent the views of the people who voted them into their cushy jobs and stop playing social engineering with tax payers money.
lets just try to go a year with politicians keeping their mouths shut, and using the legislation they already have without coming up with more hair-brained ideas to catch headlines: the world/scotland would surely be a better place
4

The Genuine Mario Antoinette,

25/06/2008 14:17:56
Comment Not Removed By Administrator
Reason: Black
5

Miss H,

25/06/2008 15:41:22
3 What makes you think that rhe SNP are not representing the views of most people on this? I suspect you might be surprised by public opinion.

The other interesting issue is that the entire medical establishment seem to be backing the SNP on this one.

People who are unsure about it will look at the arguments and say OK the drinks industry is saying one thing, doctors are saying another. It comes down to who you trust.
6

Alternative (High-Octane) Fuel Head,

Edinburgh 25/06/2008 15:44:54
I see that my comment about the strategy here has been removed.

I wonder why? Maybe it's because I hit the nail on the head!
7

The Genuine Mario Antoinette,

25/06/2008 16:07:19
maybe because you are a jackass.
8

Urban Guerrilla,

Edinburgh 25/06/2008 17:41:55
Whatever happened to freedom?
9

A Friend of Fernando Poo,

25/06/2008 18:00:20
"The other interesting issue is that the entire medical establishment seem to be backing the SNP on this one."

The job of doctors is to patch us up when we're broken, not expound on what got us broken in the first place. They're just the garage mechanics of biology.

If there are so many of them with so little to do they can philosophise on man's relationship to a pint, it's time to sack 'em and save us taxpayers some money.
10

The Geniune Mario Antionette,

04/07/2008 16:00:25
Scotmid is the worst store for discriminating against the person buying groceries & giving priority to the purchases of fags, booze & lottery tickets. Their staff even fill in the lottery tickets if the person makes a mistake on it, much to the annoyance of the food stuff queue.

 

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Today's Vote

Can any more be done to cut down the number of youths binge drinking?
Yes, more punitive measures should be taken against shops
Yes, hit the parents of teenage drinkers hard
No, if they want to get alcohol they'll get it somehow

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