Alcohol licensing continues to be a controversial issue!

text-align:justify;">Hardly a day goes by without another assault on the alcohol retailing industry from health campaigners or the media. Recently health campaigners have concentrated on the issue of minimum pricing as providing a silver bullet for the perceived problems of our drinking culture. A Channel 4 News piece recently typified the simplistic approach of tabloid television to our industry. Filmed against the bleak backdrop of the northeast of England the Channel 4 report recited the neo-prohibitionist myth that it’s the availability of alcohol that makes people drink it, and cheap beer from supermarkets was particularly singled out as the cause of 'pre-loading' by young drinkers before going on a night out. The simple solution? Minimum pricing to push up cost and thus reduce consumption!

It's as if our journalists have forgotten that in the northeast we have large-scale intergenerational unemployment with thousands of men standing idle. The shipyards on the Tyne have closed, the steel works at Redcar are gone and hundreds of businesses in the supply chains to these industries have closed. Unemployment and the poverty, marital breakdown and personal demoralisation this leads to have far more to do with alcoholism than how the retail distribution system markets boxes of beer. This Channel 4 piece is but one example of how our sector is scape-goated for the failure of politicians to deal effectively with intractable social problems outside of our control. Poverty and unemployment has always been a main driver of alcohol abuse. The best way to tackle binge drinking amongst young people in the Northeast, and elsewhere, is to provide apprenticeships and other teaching and learning opportunities that provide practical steps to work for young people.