We all want a bargain when it comes to booze, though some of us have notions of connoisseurship that extend beyond Buckfast - astonishingly expensive, anyway - Glen Gutripper whisky, Gulag Vodka, and Oblivion Cider.
The Scotch Whisky Association and various other industry bodies, not just here but throughout Europe, oppose the Scottish Government's minimum price legislation and are challenging it in court. Me, I'm in favour of it. The medical profession is in favour of it. The numbers stack up: cheap, street corner alcohol at pocket money prices is A Bad Thing.
And there's a horrible flavour in some arguments that 'the poor tooneed their escape' of Victorian policy of flooding the industrial cities with cheap gin to keep the poor subservient, not to say comatose.
If you want to drink good stuff, if you want quality over unconsciousness, then you need to pay 50p a unit anyway. Even if it's only just 50p a unit.
For more, check out my new column in the Caledonian Mercury.
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