The current Labour Government has released their 2010 election manifesto as the May 6th election looms close. A quick word search finds alcohol-related topics receiving a few mentions:
- Crime is down by more than a third; violent crime is down by over 40 per cent, and the risk of being a victim of crime is the lowest since 1981. But people are still worried about binge drinking, problem families and anti-social behaviour. We are committed to tackling these problems, not talking them up to run Britain down. (p.36)
- To tackle the binge drinking which can leave people reluctant to venture into town centres at night, we have banned irresponsible promotions and strengthened police and council powers to close down rowdy pubs and clubs, cracking down on under-age and public drinking. We have brought in a right to petition local authorities to end 24-hour licensing where problems arise. (p.40)
- The local pub and social club are also hubs of community life. Too many pubs have closed that could have been sustained by local people. We will support pubs that have a viable future with a new fund for community ownership in 2010-11. Councils must take full account of the importance of pubs to the local community when assessing proposals that change their use, and we will make it more difficult to demolish pubs... (p.52)
- We will expand joint working between police and the probation service to supervise prolific young offenders after they get out of prison, and the use of mentors including vetted ex-prisoners to meet offenders ‘at the gate’ so they don’t slip back into crime. And alcohol treatment places will be trebled to cover all persistent criminals where alcohol is identified as a cause of their crimes. (p.37)
The Conservative's manifesto will be released today, though they have previously outlined proposals to get tougher on licensing, raise taxes on super strength beers and ciders, and ban below cost selling of alcohol. They have also proposed to scrap the current unit system. The Liberal Democrats have uniquely called for minimum pricing measures, though Labour have not ruled it out.
See an earlier report on the political dialogue on alcohol pricing.
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