One we have Prohibition, what's next?

[RichardCranium]

My drinking buddy of years ago, a non-smoker, was a loud campaigner of smoker's rights on the grounds that "Once they've stopped you smokers, they'll be after us drinkers next."

I see the NHS has joined the Police is saying alcohol is their biggest financial burden (has smoking stopped causing cancer then?) This is always a fallacious argument: if you give up all bad things you will still need medication for a dicky chest / heart / other organs / senility when you are old.

The anti-alcohol campaign is indeed being run in much the same way as the anti-smoking campaign was run. It is banned in public places, they say we drink less and less often and now we should be using pub measures at home, FFS! The figures on "road-related deaths involving alcohol" are stated as drink-driving statistics so that sober drivers & drunk pedestrian incidents look like it is drivers causing it all as an attempt to get the blood alcohol level down to zero. (Despite there still being some controversy as to what effect this would have.)

This is despite the whole 'units' scam being a load of rubbish that was made up and has since been pulled to bits.

So, once alcohol has been banned (and the entire industry closed down because it is an export industry and we don't do them any more), what will they have us for next? Salt? Sugar? Fats? Or will they just being in a Body Weight Tax?

[wobbegong]

So, once alcohol has been banned (and the entire industry closed down because it is an export industry and we don't do them any more), what will they have us for next? Salt? Sugar? Fats? Or will they just being in a Body Weight Tax?

They'll never ban alcohol, for the same reason they will never actually ban tobacco; they're both BIG revenue earners.

[thunderlizard]

Meat will be the next one.

[HairyArsedBloke]

They will have to find some other way to cull the population once they have outlawed smoking and drinking because the already oversubscribed pensions will not be able to cover all those people that would have otherwise died. There is a double hit because they will not get the revenue that smoking and drinking brought in.

[Zippy]

When I read the story on drinking 'crippling the NHS', I went and checked the figures.
Estimated cost of drinking - £2.7 billion
Tax revenue from alcohol - £13.4 billion (figures from 2005/6)

Crippling? Bollox.

[TykeMerc]

They'll never ban alcohol, for the same reason they will never actually ban tobacco; they're both BIG revenue earners.

True although I'm willing to bet that the revenues from both have dropped a fair bit since the smoking in pubs ban.

[TykeMerc]

When I read the story on drinking 'crippling the NHS', I went and checked the figures.
Estimated cost of drinking - £2.7 billion
Tax revenue from alcohol - £13.4 billion (figures from 2005/6)

Crippling? Bollox.

Fair comment.

[AtW]

That's just an excuse to increase taxes on alcohol.

[suityou01]

Who's trying to ban alchohol?

LET-ME-AT-EM

[ASB]

When I read the story on drinking 'crippling the NHS', I went and checked the figures.
Estimated cost of drinking - £2.7 billion
Tax revenue from alcohol - £13.4 billion (figures from 2005/6)

Crippling? Bollox.

Surely the question is how the revenue is distributed? Part of the problem is the NHS picks up some of the cost from drinking (in terms of primary care, not the economic cost of otherwise useful producing units ceasing to be productive whilst they can). What it doesn't see is the revenue.

Personally I intend to carry on drinking and smoking too much so I can contribute some of the tax I otherwise avoid and drop dead on the day I retire in order to give the state the best deal from my so called production.