Gordon's Gin Lane

There is growing concern among our lords and masters about the nation's "growing addiction to alcohol", which is draining NHS resources in ways that the nation's unchanging addiction to fossil fuels and the Government's unparalleled addiction to scare propaganda evidently do not. "The role of the NHS should not just be about treating the consequences of alcohol-related harm but also about active prevention," said the president of the Royal College of Physicians; hence the Commons select committee on health is expected to recommend a minimum pricing scheme per unit of alcohol, apparently on the grounds that addicts, being noted for their thrift, are more likely to throw off their addiction the more expensive it becomes. The Glorious Successor has previously ruled out minimum pricing, or imposing limitations on pub happy hours, presumably because the likely unpopularity of such measures has penetrated even the dank, dark clay wherein his struthious cranium is now permanently interred. The possibility that growing levels of addiction (assuming they are happening at all) may result from falling living standards or a politically facilitated lack of confidence in the future was evidently too ludicrous to contemplate. Living standards have not, after all, fallen among those who matter; so why can't the rest of us just give thanks to Gordon and get on with finding a job?