More Booze-Related Fraud

To return to a subject we considered the other day, it seems there’s no end to the mendacity ministers are prepared to endorse if it furthers their efforts to tell everyone how to lead their lives. The latest ploy is to argue that the fact that the average Scot consumes 12.2 litres of pure alcohl every year demonstrates that politicians should be allowed to fix alcohol prices. This figure amounts, we are told, to 46 bottles of vodka a year.

Well that doesn’t sound all that much, does it? That’s a single bottle a week with a dry spell lasting from New Years Day to St Valentines Day. Alternatively, it equates to 11 pints of beer a week. That is, one a day with an extra couple on Fridays and Saturdays. The average Scot, then, can hardly be said to be on the lash all the time. And indeed, international comparisons bear this out.