A coherent policy on booze?

The Scottish Government is somewhat schizophrenic about it's policy towards alcoholic drink.

Many (most?) politicians seem to want to have nothing to do with drink in any shape or form, and it is hard to imagine any of the current Scottish Government standing in a bar having a pint, and damn few seem easy to imagine sitting with a nice glass of wine in hand. I know some do drink, as I have seen them gently sipping from a long-nursed glass of warm white wine at various receptions.

Nevertheless, the abstention seem to be the new code, and mixed in with a pathetic dose of "new laws for old problems", it is being forced down our throats.

Responding to a BBC report that the drinking age in Scotland may be raised to 21, the Health Minister Shona Robinson ....

said nothing had yet been ruled in or out of the government's attempt to curb problem drinking.

She added: "We all know that Scotland as a nation has a drink problem and the implications of this are very serious - not least for our health."

Scotland also has a major problem with heart attacks, so are chipshops set to be banned?

Whilst in October, Proposals to lower the voting age to 16 have been unanimously backed at the SNP annual conference.

So in the brave new Scotland you can get a driving licence, get married, join the amry and fight and die in Iraq, have children, become a Councillor or even an MP, but not have a half of lager after a hard week at work until you are 21.

There are exceptions to the general rule about booze being bad.

A fortnight ago Holyrood debated the whisky duty rise, with Alex Salmond, the First Minister, warning that the Budget would "damage Scotland's economic interests".

So are these 'economic interests' more important than the health impacts, or has whisky got no adverse effects on health?

The solution that Ms Robison is thrashing about searching for is to use the existing licensing legislation to take action on public houses (and supermarkets) who serve under-agers or those who are obviously drunk, and to get the Police to use their powers to clamp down on those who are 'drunk and disorderly'. Perhaps the extra Police on the beat who were promised in the Manifesto would have been able to deal with these problems.

I has been one of the defining features of a Government in trouble to deal with an issue that the knee-jerk reaction is to add yet more ill-thought out legislation to the statute book, rather than attempt to develop and deliver a coherent policy using existing powers.

Let's start with the basics: is all booze bad? And then build a policy from that simple principle.