Prohibitionist Fantasies

Snowdon has been feasting himself by debunking some of the shameless lies being promoted by anti-booze types during 'Alcohol Awareness Week'. You might like to read about the most recent here, here and here.

Yesterday, though, saw an uptick in bullshit from the temperance lobby, with a succession of astounding nonsense at their hashtag #TackleAlcoholHarms, tweeted directly from some conference or other packed with people paid out of your taxes. They are set for more fantasy claims today before knocking off at 2:30pm to celebrate raucously with a lemon grass and durian smoothie, I expect.

I was particularly intrigued with this tweet, though, and was educated by Mudgie as to how it was disastrously gullible.

The way we are drinking alcohol is changing! More people are drinking at home. Consumption at home is up dramatically #TackleAlcoholHarms
— Kay Gee (@kirstygail) November 21, 2013

You see, we have undisputed and government-trusted figures about this from the BBPA. Here is what they look like.

Now, that doesn't look like a 'dramatic' rise in off-trade sales to me. It more suggests that beer consumption is in general decline, which kinda trashes the 'booze epidemic' mantra. The one thing we can tell conclusively is that there is no "up dramatically" about any of the lines there.

Ok, so maybe wine and spirits sales are taking up the slack? Not noticeably, no.

Wine & Spirit Sales continue to fall as year on year tax rises hit consumers 

Off Trade

- Total volume sales have continued to slide, down 3% annually and 4% over the latest 12 weeks.

In fact, sales of wines and spirits have been flat for some time now, as these graphics show quite clearly.

Yes, these data are provided by trade organisations. But even if we ignore the fact that government trusts these sources and that it would be in the best interests of private industry to talk up their successes to assuage shareholders instead of highlighting declines, who do you trust more? Tax-funded lobbyists whose income relies on pretending there is a "dramatic" rise in home consumption, or trade bodies for companies beholden to shareholders and financial regulators to provide accurate information?

And then there is this, which is not a slippery slope and therefore patently false.

Alcohol Promotion - Interesting comparison between how warning labels on cigarettes could be transposed to alcohol #TackleAlcoholHarms
— Temp. Sgt Mick Urwin (@AlcoholHarmCop) November 21, 2013

It took 50yrs to reduce the harm from smoking - hopefully alcohol won't take that long ! #TackleAlcoholHarms #talkdrink
— Temp. Sgt Mick Urwin (@AlcoholHarmCop) November 21, 2013

They're not even hiding it any more.