Friday, September 11, 2009

No more booze special offers


Hurry, while you still can...



Hot on the heels of the new licensing laws which came into effect on the first of this month, Kenny MacAskill (remember him?) announced today that special offers in off sales and supermarkets could be banned, if the local licensing boards decided too.

So, it's up to the tin-pot councils dotted around the land to decide what constitutes a special offer or what is too much for an adult to buy on his or her visit to Tesco.

It's bad enough that a shift worker like me, who works nights, cannot buy a can or two of lager after my shift. It is illegal to sell alcohol before 10am. Now they are dictating how much and at what price as well as when.

However, there may well be a fly in the ointment for Kenny and his chums. The proposals, as well as the current discussion of minimum pricing, could well be illegal under current EU law. Who would have thought it? The hated EU could ride to the rescue! Fat chance though, they would just amend the rules to suit.

So, that's the smokers dealt with, the drinkers dealt with. Who's next? Pie eaters perhaps? Maybe not, the SNP leader is a lover of pies.

So, whilst you still can, hurry down to the supermarket and stock up.


.

7 comments:

pisshead said...

The stasi just ignore EU laws when they don't like them. They were told to destroy their DNA database but haven't bothered. They were supposed to give agency workers equal rights but ignored that aswell. I doubt if they will change their plans to put up drink prices just because it's illegal.

Faux Cu said...

Sorry Rab but you are wrong.

If ever there was ine bit of anti-booze legislation that is right, it is this.

If there is a hotspot of alcohol supply nonsense within a defined area a local solution to that malfeasance is the spot-on solution.

The centre of Cupar has been a Gomorrah at the week-end so target the area and let the licensed purveyors b local opprobrium, along with the subject of existing laws.

Thursday to Sunday variations on age etc; why not?

Local problem, local solution, local responsibility and local accountabilty.Devolved politics?


Vote them out if they bugger it up or misuse the powers?

Dramfineday said...

It's time you were aff the booze Rab!

I agree with the Govt - and I'm like you I enjoy a dram or three. But drink has got to the point where some of it is cheaper than water. Result - on a nighly basis I've got drunked head the baws howling to the moon, pissing in the hedge and generally making an erse of themselves (comes from drinking on an empty head nae doubt). Cheap booze is a real and present danger. It's killing us (and me)and if it cost a few bob more then too bad - I might live long enough to ensure I get plenty out of the pension pot rather than inflate supermarket profits for greedy owners.

PS just think back about thirty years ago, a bottle of whisky took very nearly a weeks wages to buy. Now you can get a bottle for a tenner or thereby.

Dark Lochnagar said...

Sorry Rab, I also think your wrong on this one. I agree with all the above comments about cheap booze and some of the twats that are getting their hands on it. Dramfienday as far as I believe it will not be Whisky that is affected but Alcopops and cheap Cider. Christ I saw a 3 litre bottle of 8% proof Cider the other day for £1.99!

Sam Duncan said...

Well, I'm with Rab. And I don't drink.

There were licencing laws - with provision for local boards to use their discretion - already. Are they so spineless they wouldn't revoke a licence? There was no need for a blanket pre-10am ban, or the absolute economic illiteracy that is minimum pricing.

So... worried about supermarket profits, then? I hear Champagne is coming down in price due to overproduction. Well, not here it ain't. So who gets to buy dirt cheap bubbly wholesale and sell it at the lowest price they're allowed to? Why, Scottish supermarkets, that's who. Well done, Kendo: you've just made inflated profits the law. Nice one. Expect a case of malt from Sir Terry Leahy any day now. If giving it away is still allowed, that is. Might have to be a boquet of flowers.

And alcohol cheaper than water? Even if that's true, it's only because people with more money than sense will pay silly money for H2O. Alcohol in this country isn't particulary cheap. That's why God gave us booze cruises.

Sam Duncan said...

Bouquet. Arse.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Rab on this one. What about the personal responsibility of the drinker? Oh sorry, they all need minders? I'm starting to make my own alcohol at home. No tax to that cunt Brown either.