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Who’s got bottle to take on supermarkets over booze?
THERE are many reasons why youngsters tragically become alcoholics – this was highlighted at University College Hospital last week with the death of Gary Reinbach.
But one of the main reasons is the fact that cheap alcohol can be so easily obtained at local shops and supermarkets.
Nor does it help that there are no controls over the promotion of cheap alcohol on the internet and mobile phones.
This tragic tale can be traced back to the late 80s when the Tory government allowed supermarkets to sell alcohol.
New Labour also gave the big chains their blessing.
Inevitably, the supermarkets battled it out with each other and cut, cut and cut prices.
The social consequences did not appear to interest them.
Gary Reinbach was one of their victims. And there are hundreds of 11 and 12-year-olds today who will become alcoholics by their late teens with their livers damaged beyond repair. Latest figures show alcohol consumption has increased threefold in two decades among 11 to 15-year-olds.
Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron are afraid to take on the supermarkets.
Until this is done, more tragedies are on the way.
Home truths
LIB Dem councillors demonstrated their version of soapbox campaigning on Monday when they set up stall outside their own Town Hall, dishing out leaflets (see page 1, 6 and 7).
The leaflets put the entire blame for the predicament of council tenants onto – Labour.
Predictably, and unimaginatively.
In our opinion they were missing the point. What the new breed of modernisers currently occupying the Town Hall seem to struggle to grasp is that the critical problem facing housing in the borough is not a matter for petty party political squabbling – however close the next boroughwide elections are.
Everybody can see the rough hand dealt to the tenants by a government obsessed with neo-liberal solutions to the current financial crisis.
What is needed is a bold joint campaign of tenants and local politicians, all fighting shoulder to shoulder against government policy.
Rather like those aiming to preserve the core values of the National Health Service, the campaign for more and improved council housing is predicated on the belief that you, and your neighbour, has a right to the basic amenity of good housing. Common wants, for common cares. |
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