Dear Dave

Some politics for the Friday guest post, as Ross Evans writes to the Prime Minister to offer an idea on how to curb alcohol abuse amongst young people in the UK.

Rt Hon David Cameron MP

10 Downing Street

London

SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister,

RE: alcohol abuse

I have read with interest several articles of late concerning the level of alcohol abuse in the UK and its links with the availability of cheap alcohol, whilst not wanting to go into the minutia of the plethora of ideas for the control of perceived ‘problems’ with the current legislation I would like to propose, what I believe to be, a happy medium.

What I would like to propose is that we restrict the sale of alcohol at off-licence premises, i.e. supermarkets & Corner shops, to anyone under the age of 21 whilst keeping the current drinking age of 18 years of age in on-licenced premises. In doing so I believe the proposal will have a number of advantages which I outline below:

Firstly, and perhaps the most important, you will not be prohibiting young people to no alcohol at all, rather, their drinking will be done in a supervised and controlled environment, a“training” stage of their social drinking – for want of a better phrase.

Secondly, I believe that this proposal will not garner too much opposition from the Supermarket lobby, as they will still be able to sell alcohol to their target audience whilst pleasing those calling for a clamp down on alcohol abuse. This will drastically detract from the those who seek to buy large amounts of cheap alcohol to drink in an unsupervised environment.

Thirdly, I believe that this proposal would be beneficial and welcomed by the publican sector, as it would help to draw people back into our pubs, where they can still drink freely whilst under supervision.

As far as I can see, compared with other proposals this one would have a negligible impact on revenues for legitimate sellers of alcohol, and a minimal amount of change to current legislation. I would like to add a note that I have in no way conducted a feasibility study or impact assessment on this proposal, I merely think – from my years in the hospitality trade and growing up in the South Wales Valleys – that it could impact the most vulnerable whilst not penalising those who drink responsibly. I would also recommend that this be accompanied by harsher penalties for those licensees found selling to both under age and intoxicated people, similar to sanctions found in New Zealand.

Yours Sincerely,

Ross Evans

Ross Evans is a valleys expat relocated to Cardiff for political, cultural, leisure and drinking pursuits. Big food, Cider, Beer and Pub aficionado with a love of local provenance and strong branding.