Another U turn for this Useless Government

What a waste of time and space.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21760806

Not being much of a drinker these days, can anyone explain to me what you can get for 45p or even 50p a unit beside methylated spirit that is drinkable. O take it that a unit is still equivalent to half a pint or a single measure of spirits?

Phil, an average bottle of wine is worth 10 units.
At 50p per unit the minimum price would be about £5, for which one can buy a whole range of very nice wines, including wines that normally sell at twice that price but are frequently on sale.

Only the really cheap wines will be affected, which means people with limited budgets will then have to get their priorities right and that, I believe, is the purpose of the proposal.
All we need to do now is to put a minimum price on Sky TV so that only the incredibly rich can afford it and the poorer people will find themselves much better off.

BTW Have you seen the price of meths lately?

Volty

I didn't know you could still get QC wine & sherry, I remember when I used to sit on the park bench with a bottle of QC in one hand and a bottle of cider in the other. Be honest do you think putting 50p on a bottle of cheapjack alcohol is going to make the slightest difference to those that drink it. The only difference is going to be more profit for the makers and sellers or tax for the government.

I don't know anything about QC Phil, I've never bought any but I assume it must be very cheap.
It would probably have 20 units per bottle giving a minimum price of £10. I doubt that is only a 50p increase from it's current price.

The 50p proposal is that that will be the price per unit, not the increase per bottle.
So the cheaper it is now, the more the increase will be later.

Volty

The supposed increse is from 45p per unit to 50p per unit making an increase of 50p on a 10 unit bottle. As I said hardly the end of the world. I think you can still get QC sherry Tesco's advertise it at £3.99 for a fortified 70cl bottle. I don't think you would ever get QC mixed up with your Oloroso.

Phil, there is no minimum at the moment.
The two figures are different possibilities for the minimum price per unit, if it ever comes into force, which it hasn't and may not do.
Some of the government propose 45p and health campaigners want 50p. That difference isn't such a big deal.

Your QC sherry is £5 at Morrisons, I didn't want to be seen picking it up so I don't know how strong it is but it would probably have to nearly double in price if minimum pricing was introduced, now that's a big deal to the people who buy it.

There is a formula for working it out.

What is an alcohol unit?
One alcohol unit is measured as 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol.
This equals one 25ml single measure of whisky (ABV 40%), or a third of a pint of beer (ABV 5-6%) or half a standard (175ml) glass of red wine (ABV 12%).

Work out your alcohol units for yourself with this handy sum:
Strength (ABV) x Volume (ml) ÷ 1000 = No. of units.

Above taken from Drink Aware

So, per litre a drink has exactly the same number of units as its ABV figure
Litre of Vodka or Gin or Whisky = 40 units.

A pint of beer is 0.568 (just over half) of a litre, at 4% = 2.7 units
A bottle of wine is .75 (three quarters) of a litre, at 13% = 9.75 Units

This gives a minimum price proposal, at 50p, of:

Litre of 40% Spirits £20
Bottle of 40% Spirits £15
Bottle of 13% Wine £4.87
Bottle of 20% Sherry or Port £7.50

Volty

I've been in some pubs where you could be safe drinking whatever came out of the pumps or the optics all night long and be assured of walking out at the end of the evening as sober as you walked in. I think in their own way they were doing their best to ensure that we didn't all turn in to a nation of drunkards by watering everything down.

Everything but the prices I expect?

This amuses me....

Minimum Pricing

Portugal are complaining about Scotland's attempt to bring in minimum wine pricing. Have you seen the price of Portuguese wine in the UK.
I don't think they will be affected by a minimum price unless it's nearer to a pound per unit than current estimates.
In Portugal they are over valuing many of their own wines, asking £10 per bottle for fairly ordinary wine.

They state that "The effect of the minimum price is, in fact, to protect the domestic wine market and national producers against the competition of imported wines," . I had not realised that Scotland produced any wines. Would think that if they tried the yield would be so low that it would not be worth it

They certainly didn't until a couple of years ago, they may still not.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/...e-produced.html

I have tried English wine in the past, I wasn't sufficiently impressed with the wine to fork out the ridiculous price being asked.
We also acquired a bottle of English sparkling wine from a farmers market. It was OK, but at the price of Champagne and twice the price of full price Cava, it wasn't going to get on the shopping list.

I have tasted many wines from all the countries over the years. I still have not come across one that I would rave about. I suppose the most expensive I ever tasted was a 1990 Château Latour. I can't say I was over enamoured with it, I was only glad I didn't pay for it. I have always thought that the cheaper end of the wine market was best, but there again a lot of those are nothing but glorified vinegar.

What I am saying is, it would not matter a great deal to me if they put the price up to £50 per unit because I wouldn't miss it.

You can definitely get some horrible wine at really low prices, this is why Bulgaria are complaining.
But price is never a guide to quality. Especially when some really nice wines at £12 can appear on the shelves at half that price. That's when I buy them, trouble is that when they go back to full price I consider them too expensive to drink.