[Margaret Pilkington]

I drink very little alcohol, but I think this is the wrong approach and penalises the wrong people (as Guinness has said in his post).
A lot of young people go out to get drunk...not to have a good time, not to enjoy banter with friends...but just to get drunk.
How do you stop this.......well, the first thing would be to take the alcohol licence away from all supermarkets.......give it back to the selling out shops....and perhaps the off sales in public houses. Go back to the licencing hours that were in place before somebody thought to 'continentalise' us with all day drinking.
It is no damn good thinking that giving free rein to the sale of alchol will produce the same kind of drinking habits that are enjoyed on the continent...the whole culture is different.

Guinness you are right, this penalises those responsible drinkers on a fixed income...and will do little to prevent binge drinking,alcohol fuelled violence and hospital admissions.

I'm fed up of governments trying to be my conscience, my nanny.....trying to tell me how to live my life......and in the process, removing more money from my pocket(which will find its way to Rwanda or the EU coffers).
It is high time they got on with the job of sorting out the economy, the EU,fostering some confidence in business, dealing with unemployment and other pressing issues - except, these are all much harder to solve aren't they?