My, that was quick.
A week ago, you may remember, the drinks industry launched a £100m initiative aimed at reducing alcohol intake amongst under 25s. One of the reasons for the proactive move was to stave off the looming spectre of advertising restrictions.
If the adverts don't work, then it is possible the government will push through stricter rules to reduce the amount of alcohol people are drinking.
These could include a ban on cheap booze offers in both bars and supermarkets and tougher restrictions on advertising alcoholic drinks.
I opined that the drinks lobby were chucking their readies down the drain, that this smacked of appeasement, an admission of guilt, and that it will be used against them. It has taken a mere 7 days for the puritans to stomp into the news and prove me correct.
There should be a ban on all alcohol advertising, including sports and music sponsorship, doctors say.
The British Medical Association said the crackdown on marketing was needed along with an end to cut-price deals to stop the rising rates of consumption.
This is even more dramatic than the attacks on smoking. At least, back then, the bansturbators used the perceived failure of the tobacco industry's solution as justification for a draconian all-out ban on advertising.
With alcohol, they're not even waiting to see what happens!
One has to assume they are in such a hurry to get this through before the godawful, pliant, healthist Labour airheads are swept from office. And Comrade Beeb are working like trojans to help them.
The cost to the NHS for treating injury and illness linked to drink has been estimated to be anything up to £3bn a year in the UK.
It comes as alcohol consumption has been rising rapidly in recent years with over a third of adults now drinking above the recommended amounts.
One-sided equation (counting costs but ignoring alcohol duty which far outweighs it), followed by a cast-iron, bare-faced lie. Here, according to ONS figures, are recent male and female consumption figures, in graph form.
Rising rapidly in recent years? Bollocks.
This has been coming for a while, as I have mentioned over and over again. I even set out the steps, in the path to prohibition template, which anti-smoking activists used, and are teaching to other would-be righteous. This is the consolidation of step 3.
3) On the back of junk science, nobble the opposing industry with advertising bans - Tobacco advertising completely banned, alcohol advertising is subject to very strict rules ... so far.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to repeat this piece of advice in the vain hope that someone, anyone, in the alcoholic drinks lobby WILL FUCKING LISTEN!
It really is time that the drinks industry stood up for itself and was more positive in its defence. Their current back-sliding in the hope that the prohibitionists will just leave them alone, is naive in the extreme and simply won't work.
They can start by challenging Don Shenker on his choice of words.
And Don Shenker, of Alcohol Concern, added: "There's no longer any doubt - the heavy marketing and promotion of alcohol, combined with low prices - are encouraging young people to drink at a level our health services are struggling to cope with."
It's the old 'no doubt - the debate is over - evidence is overwhelming' ploy again. The utterance of which is proof positive that whoever said it is a top drawer duplicitous cunt.
And always remember that all of this - every little piece of the whole rancid, steaming mountain of deceitful horseshit - is paid for by your taxes, for your own good.
UPDATE: Having looked at the BMA document on which the BBC article is based, the only basis for the spurious claim that we are drinking considerably more in 'recent years' is ... a study by the BMA. In their document 'Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic', they talk of the increase of alcohol consumption since 1950 when rationing was still in force. So recent years means ... err ... six decades.
And how about this for top quality BBC journalism. The BMA pdf file uses this exact phrase (verbatim) three times, in the first sentence of three separate sections.
Alcohol consumption in the UK has increased rapidly in recent years
And from the BBC article,
It comes as alcohol consumption has been rising rapidly in recent years
Brilliant paraphrasing. 'rising' for 'increasing'.
UPDATE2: IanB has a piece over at Counting Cats on this. It seems the report's author isn't impartial at all. What a surprise.
Graph H/T The Filthy Smoker
