Nanny State

It looks as though the Government is for once going to avoid a knee jerk reaction to the barking suggestion from Sir Liam Donaldson that no drinks could be sold for less than 50 pence per unit of alcohol they contain.

That's the good news. But unfortunately the reasons seem to be rather more about avoiding upsetting the voters in difficult economic times than a realisation that it is no business of the Government to interfere in people's lives like this.

Such attempts to manipulate behaviour penalise the sensible majority and usually fail to solve the perceived problem. If the Government wants to impact on binge drinking or over consumption of alcohol it should educate rather than legislate. It might also ponder why after more than a decade of Labour Government we have a society that feels it needs to blot out their lives with alcohol!