Why are we being fined for drunkenness?

Is it just me or does anyone else think that sticking an arbitrary minimum price on alcohol is a bit like putting an Elastoplast on a double compound fracture.

For a start off where is this extra money everyone will have to pay going to go? The brewers? The supermarkets? The Government? All three? It doesn't really matter to us does it, wherever it goes it is just another stealth tax.

David Cameron tells us that binge drinking is costing the NHS £2.7b a year. I don't doubt it but the vast majority of the population can manage to have a drink without ambulances, hospitals, paramedics or anyone else standing by.

In the run up to Christmas I was reviewing at Symphony Hall and The Crescent and came out each time to find ambulances and paramedic cars lined up on Broad Street opposite Symphony Hall waiting for the night's quota of drunks.

Does anyone seriously believe sticking a few bob on drinks in supermarkets will seriously dent the drinking habits of the boneheads who see pouring booze down their neck until their brains float away - and remember they are drinking at Broad Street club and bar prices which are not exactly competing with Tesco value.

It is no secret that the low price of alcohol in mainland Europe puts our high, duty fuelled prices to shame - hence booze cruisers - but the populations there do not have to put up with brain-dead drunks puking, fighting, screaming obscenities and staggering their way home - or to A&E.

Which tends to indicate the problem is not price but lies much deeper within the education system and society in general. But that will take money and time to first identify the causes and then make some attempt to solve hem.

Much easier to bung up prices to ensure everyone is penalised and suffers equally. That way not only is there no cost but a few bob comes into the coffers as a bonus and you can stretch it out for a couple of years before anyone has to admit that the drunks are still drunk.