Why Are The SNP So Quiet On Alcohol All Of A Sudden?

Something momentous happened today in Scotland. Something so absolutely brilliant that we should surely be expecting SNP politicians to be bouncing off the walls with excitement.

You see, the Scottish government's monitoring of their alcohol strategy showed that there has been a massive reduction in, well, just about everything.

The BBC reported it in their usual fashion.

Scots drink deaths fall but rates still high, says NHS

Which isn't quite what the report said.

Consumption is down; those drinking beyond guidelines is down; alcohol deaths are down; hospital discharge rates are down; liver disease rates are massively down; drink driving rates are down; drunkenness offences are down; and rates of kids drinking are down.

And what did the official Scottish government media briefing say about all of this? Triumphal, surely?

Nope. There was no mention of it whatsoever. Seriously. Absolutely nothing.

This, remember, from an SNP government which has been infesting every available media outlet for the past couple of years - Nicola Sturgeon front and centre - telling us all that Scotland really needs a minimum alcohol price as the 'alcohol epidemic' is out of control. Not a snifter of interest on her Twitter feed about this, though.

Now, could it be - and it's just a hunch, this - that "a decline in the volume of alcohol sold per adult, which fell by 5% from 2009-11" is a massive obstacle to the SNP's minimum pricing plan?

Researchers at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) said that in 2010 a floor price of 45p would have saved 50 lives in the first year, and 225 lives a year within a decade. 

Now a 50p basic price was needed to have a similar affect. That would cut overall consumption by 5.7%

It's hard to claim that future 5.7% reduction as the result of inspired lawmaking when your current stats show almost the same without any further interference, now isn't it? 'Cos they're now looking at at least 8% to 10% in the first year before they can boast anything much of interest (we're watching closely now thanks to Cameron, you see).

I've tweeted Nicola tonight, but she was a bit busy discussing arts on STV at the time. I'm sure she - or Scottish Health Minister Alex Neil who has been equally silent - will rejoice at this excellent news sometime soon. After all, they could hardly have missed it in the last 24 hours of their pristine silence.

Yep. Won't be long now.