Once again the cheap alcohol debate rears its head, and once again the call is for government intervention to force retailers to raise their prices on alcohol.  Who’s leading the charge this time?  The Labour Party?  Nope (or at least not directly), instead it’s Tescos.

One of the biggest retailers in the country has come out to argue that people can’t be trusted to make decisions for themselves.

There are very few people who would argue that we don’t have a problem with alcohol abuse in this country.  Anyone who’s been in a town centre on a weekend can attest to the level of the problem.  But when it comes to the purchase of alcohol for excessive use the issue consistently gets turned round to price; essentially that people drink so much because the alcohol is so cheap, and that if it were more expensive people would drink less.

Ok, fair enough, if alcohol were more expensive I don’t doubt that people would drink less.  However the reality is that people don’t drink to excess because alcohol is so cheap, they drink to excess because they want to (cheap alcohol just helps them in their endeavour).  The bigger question, and the one we consistently fail to address, is why people want to drink to excess?