Minimum Alcohol Pricing

[topcat(The most tip top)]

11 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Anyone who thinks a labour win at the next Scottish election will result in a big price drop in alcohol in Scotland is deluded. There may be some talk about an end to MUP but you can be certain we won't see prices reduced accordingly. This genie is out the bottle I'm afraid, there may be an end to increases but there will be no reduction almost certainly. 

Tramp juice and cooking wine will be back on the menu pretty sharpish

[Billy Jean King]

Quick Q, where does the law stand on wine clubs with regards to mup ?

I recently joined the virgin wine bank scheme and it's introductory offer was a mixed case of 12 bottles plus a bottle of prosecco so 13 bottles of wine for £58.99. Bottle of wine is between 12 and 14.5% so by my reckoning way below the mup price, does it not apply to mail order type purchases which are probably based in England ?

[Thane of Cawdor]

11 hours ago, Soapy FFC said:

One of the certainties of life, that an in coming government never gets rid of taxes or levies that they complain about in opposition. 

The hapless Gordon Brown reduced VAT on domestic fuel. Exception proving the rule?

[HTG]

16 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

Quick Q, where does the law stand on wine clubs with regards to mup ?

I recently joined the virgin wine bank scheme and it's introductory offer was a mixed case of 12 bottles plus a bottle of prosecco so 13 bottles of wine for £58.99. Bottle of wine is between 12 and 14.5% so by my reckoning way below the mup price, does it not apply to mail order type purchases which are probably based in England ?

Pretty sure if it's ordered online and delivered from England, MUP isn't applicable. 

[I Clavdivs]

14 hours ago, Billy Jean King said:

Anyone who thinks a labour win at the next Scottish election will result in a big price drop in alcohol in Scotland is deluded. There may be some talk about an end to MUP but you can be certain we won't see prices reduced accordingly. This genie is out the bottle I'm afraid, there may be an end to increases but there will be no reduction almost certainly. 

MUP is already Labour policy in Labour run Wales so can't see them reducing it here unless the specious Sarwar reverts to type and the politics of the playground. 

[10menwent2mow]

The points being made about 'tramp juice' are very valid. A litre bottle of vodka, regardless of quality, will now cost at least £24.38 if it's 37.5% abv. 

A crate of 24 cans of 440ml tennents will be around £27.50.

I can remember getting boxes of 24 for a tenner when I turned 18, according to the bank of England's inflation calculator, that should cost £18 now. 

Another poster pointed out that folk buying their normal carryout would be amazed at the increase. He's spot on, one of the regulars in my local bought a sleeve of 15 tins yesterday and couldn't believe he was over £17. The checkout quine in Asda said to him that he wasn't the first to have noticed. 

[10menwent2mow]

How does this work for places like a cash and carry and alcohol wholesalers. Are they bound by MUP? I'd guess not because it would suggest that a 22 gallon keg of T would cost about £260.

[Todd_is_God]

5 hours ago, scottsdad said:

The issue here will be if there is the sunset clause. Had they not put one in place in 2018, I reckon we'd still be at 50p and this policy would just die away slowly as inflation got it. 

But the sunset clause meant that, had they not extended it, the MUP would have been removed completely. So instead they have raised it to 65p. I don't think there is a new sunset clause so it'll remain at 65p unless/until parliament increases it again.

There are already absolute gimps demanding it rise annually in line with inflation. These people are so out of touch with the struggles of the population at large when they come out with this pish which effectively aims to treat responsibile adults as naughty children who need to earn a treat.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

3 hours ago, 10menwent2mow said:

The points being made about 'tramp juice' are very valid. A litre bottle of vodka, regardless of quality, will now cost at least £24.38 if it's 37.5% abv. 

A crate of 24 cans of 440ml tennents will be around £27.50.

I can remember getting boxes of 24 for a tenner when I turned 18, according to the bank of England's inflation calculator, that should cost £18 now. 

Another poster pointed out that folk buying their normal carryout would be amazed at the increase. He's spot on, one of the regulars in my local bought a sleeve of 15 tins yesterday and couldn't believe he was over £17. The checkout quine in Asda said to him that he wasn't the first to have noticed. 

Aberdonian in complaining about the price of things shocker

[scottsdad]

3 hours ago, I Clavdivs said:

MUP is already Labour policy in Labour run Wales so can't see them reducing it here unless the specious Sarwar reverts to type and the politics of the playground. 

That is interesting. I wasn't aware of that. 

Their summaries of the impact of MUP in Wales (eg here) are far more balanced than the reporting in Scotland that has proclaimed it a great success since day 1. They highlight the drop in consumption, the rise in deaths and also give a bit more weight to service providers (eg charity workers working in the substance abuse field, health workers, etc)

Some quotes from the Welsh report (here)

Quote

Overall there was a sense from the service providers that the introduction of MPA has had a detrimental effect on the health of their service users.

 

Quote

Many service providers reported an increase in criminal activity in particular shoplifting, in order to fund higher costs. This was not just for alcohol but also for
products that had been forgone in favour of purchasing alcohol such as food or other household necessities. The increased engagement with drug purchasing and use and the illicit sales of alcohol also have distinct legal implications in Wales. 

 

Quote

There were some discussions of the risks associated with the introduction of MPA. Most of these were around the stress of not being able to access alcohol as a dependent drinker and the general concerns that service users have of prioritising their finances. In instances where decisions have been made to buy alcohol over and above paying for utilities, food or rent there were also significant pressures experienced by live-in dependants. 

 

[Todd_is_God]

28 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

That is interesting. I wasn't aware of that. 

Their summaries of the impact of MUP in Wales (eg here) are far more balanced than the reporting in Scotland that has proclaimed it a great success since day 1. They highlight the drop in consumption, the rise in deaths and also give a bit more weight to service providers (eg charity workers working in the substance abuse field, health workers, etc)

Some quotes from the Welsh report (here)

There is a state in Australia that recently binned it completely as they found it didn't help.

The SNP led SG are incapable of acknowledging when they are wrong, though, and always double down.

[I Clavdivs]

1 hour ago, scottsdad said:

That is interesting. I wasn't aware of that. 

Their summaries of the impact of MUP in Wales (eg here) are far more balanced than the reporting in Scotland that has proclaimed it a great success since day 1. They highlight the drop in consumption, the rise in deaths and also give a bit more weight to service providers (eg charity workers working in the substance abuse field, health workers, etc)

Some quotes from the Welsh report (here)

 

 

 

There are many factors at play here not least an IFS report showing Wales under Labour has the worst job prospects market in UK for young people and an NHS so bad it is turning to a rank rotten English NHS for assistance. 

Edited Wednesday at 16:43 by I Clavdivs

[Wee-Bey]

Some gold in here.

[Leith Green]

6 hours ago, 10menwent2mow said:

A litre bottle of vodka, regardless of quality, will now cost at least £24.38 if it's 37.5% abv. 

Although, I just checked and Amazon can deliver me a litre of crud vodka for £17.49.

No sure if thats because "it comes from England"?

[carpetmonster]

5 minutes ago, Leith Green said:

Although, I just checked and Amazon can deliver me a litre of crud vodka for £17.49.

No sure if thats because "it comes from England"?

Must be; must be where the transaction takes place at, and I would *guess* that that would be down south. Same way as the whisky auction site I use, you pay 10.25% sales tax because that's the sales tax rate of the county where the company's located; the tax rate of the county you live in is irrelevant. 

Edited Wednesday at 19:21 by carpetmonster

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Glad it's been mentioned now about buying from England, because I was coming on to ask about it. Like many others I bought one of those keg machines during lockdown bought beer from Beerwulf on a semi regular basis until the price shot right up.

At that point, I put it away in the cupboard beside the soda stream machine, the George Foreman grill and the Breville toaster.

[Boo Khaki]

1 hour ago, Musketeer Gripweed said:

Glad it's been mentioned now about buying from England, because I was coming on to ask about it. Like many others I bought one of those keg machines during lockdown bought beer from Beerwulf on a semi regular basis until the price shot right up.

At that point, I put it away in the cupboard beside the soda stream machine, the George Foreman grill and the Breville toaster.

Reported for supporting genocidal despotic regimes 

[Lyle Lanley]

6 hours ago, Wee-Bey said:

Some gold in here.

Alcohol Focus would permanently ban Alcohol altogether if they could. 

[Bairnardo]

11 minutes ago, Lyle Lanley said:

Alcohol Focus would permanently ban Alcohol altogether if they could. 

What a way to spend your one go on this earth.....

[topcat(The most tip top)]

20 hours ago, Wee-Bey said:

Some gold in here.

I'm not convinced that "the average cost of a bottle of cider will cost double than south of the border." is any more factually correct than it is grammatically

I looked for a deal where I could buy cider at 32.5p a unit and the closest I could find was Asda who had 10 can packs of strongbow at £10 each (51p/unit) .There's a special offer of 3 packs for £23 right now) but even that extreme case is still only 39p a unit.

Strongbow is the UK's second most popular brand. The most popular is kopparberg you can get 10 x 330ml cans for £9 at Asda (reduced from £10) which equates to a Scotland legal 68p/unit

Of course they're cans not bottles Asda's only bottled ciders were at £2.50 each Even with a 4 for 3 on Inch's that's still MUP compliant

I'm not going to rule out the possibility that were I to look beyond Britain's most downmarket supermarket I could find something on sale in England that's cheap enough and strong enough to satisfy the criteria but it's hardly going to be representative of the "average bottle of cider"

 

Edited yesterday at 14:44 by topcat(The most tip top)