UK: EU report on alcohol provides shock headlines

The British Beer and Pub Association has slammed an EU report which claims Britain is in the Premier League of binge-drinking.

The report, compiled by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, will help the EU form its alcohol strategy.

It says Brits binge drink once a fortnight on average and says alcohol is ‘public enemy’ number three – behind tobacco and high blood pressure.

More worryingly the report opens the door to the theory of passive drinking by quantifying the damage caused to society by “other people’s drinking”.

It says: “Many people suffer due to someone else’s’ drinking – including 5-9 million children living in families damaged by alcohol and the 10,000 ‘innocent’ deaths that occur to bystanders or passengers from drink-drivers.”

It also claims alcohol costs Europe €125 billion – equivalent to over €650 for every household each year.

Professor Christine Godfrey, of the University of York, said: “This is the best estimate yet conducted showing the scale of the social costs of alcohol in Europe. But more importantly, the report shows that cost-effective polices are available, and that predictions of catastrophic job losses for implementing effective policies are much overstated.”

Among the policies it recommends are higher taxes on alcohol and better education warning of the dangers of excessive drinking.

However, Mark Hasting of the BBPA slammed the report saying its authors have links to the Temperance Movement.

He said: “On the face of it there is no new news here. In fact the authors seem to have overlooked the compelling evidence that both overall alcohol consumption and the amount we drink when we go out is falling.

"Reports like this are great at generating a few shock horror headlines, but don't stand up to analysis. The recommendations are overly simplistic. For example their central recommendation is that the silver 'bullet solution is higher prices and restrictions on sale. Were that true, how do they explain the fact that across Europe, the countries with the highest prices and greatest market restrictions have far higher alcohol problems than those with low prices and relaxed licensing regimes.

"But I suppose when you pay the Temperance Movement to write a report on alcohol, you shouldn't be surprised that these are the conclusions.”

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