Last call for alcohol…?

Now I’ve always been led to believe that Ken Morrison was a man after my own heart, in that he wasn’t prone to wasting money and that every sale counted at his Morrisons supermarket.
 
Things may however be changing. It seems as though one product may now be harder to purchase than it previously was, as apparently Morrisons is asking all customers whether they are over 21 before selling them alcohol, in a move to avoid getting fined selling booze to anyone who us underage.
 
I can only imagine some of the sarcastic comments that the staff on the checkout will get from pensioners or those in middle aged, when asked if they are over 21 when attempting to buy a bottle of Baileys or something similar.
 
Now I’m all for selling alcohol responsibly, but I could take supermarkets much more seriously if for example they didn’t sell value brands of beer at a price that is cheaper than water, rather than asking damn fool questions to those of us old enough to buy alcohol.
 
Government has not covered itself in glory in the area of responsible drinking either. Firstly no one told them that to get a continental café culture you may want to encourage, well, more cafes rather than round the clock drinking. 

Then they came up with the bright idea of Alcohol Disorder Zones as part of the Violent Crime and Disorder Bill. Essentially that meant that any retail outlet with a licence would be hit with a supplement to their business rates in a certain geographical area, to pay for disorder created by the consumption of alcohol.
 
The problem was that this tax, and it is a tax, would have hit the likes of Boots, who have licensed premises so that they can sell gift packs with a tiny bottle of scotch in at Christmas, much harder than the local off licence. This is because the fee would have been based on the licensed area. Boots with the bigger shop, yet whose sales of alcohol would only take place over Christmas, and quite frankly would be negligible would have been faced paying more than a retailer whose sole purpose was to sell alcohol.
 
So on the one hand you had a Government allowing for 24hour drinking, and then on the other they wanted to tax the local pharmacy chain. Mind you, I suppose they could have been forgiven for thinking they had done the likes of Boots a favour as with pubs allowed to open whenever they want the sale of headache pills must have rocketed.

Jonathan Sheppard