Binge drinking

The Association of Chief Police Officers has suggested throwing binge drinkers into privately run “drunk tanks” to save the taxpayer money. But will it work?

We take a look back at the lowlights of 2012 with damned lies and statistics coming thick and fast from across the political spectrum.

couple of days after the budget, with rows raging about the “granny tax” and George Osborne’s decision to help the super-rich by cutting the 50p rate, the PM had what seemed like a smart idea. Number 10 decided to bring forward plans to increase the price of cheap alcohol, to tackle binge drinking and what David Cameron called “the mayhem on our streets”. According to Mr Cameron cheap booze is causing a “scourge of violence” – a million violent crimes and more than a million hospital admissions each year. Setting a minimum unit price (MUP) would, he promised, provide “a big part of the answer”. But I’ve found out that just four days before he made his announcement, he’d been warned by one of his own ministers that the policy could well be illegal. Was the PM right to go ahead or should he have listened to his colleague?

With George Osborne rumoured to be unveiling plans for an “alcohol unit price control” in the 2012 Budget, FactCheck calls time on the row in the cabinet over boozed-up Britain. How bad are we as a nation? Will imposing a minimun price on booze make a difference to binge drinking?