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Alcohol

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4 earlier in the week about marmalade. It was said that marmalade was invented by the Scots in the 1740s to go on toast. Before that, they used to drink alcohol, in the form of ale, for breakfast, so imbibing ale in large quantities and at odd times of day is well known in British history. If one could go back to Hogarth's times, or the industrial revolution, one would see that high alcohol consumption was always a factor. That was why there were always temperance movements, and strong feelings and debates as society developed. The Chairman of the Select Committee on Health, the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), mentioned the difference in duty between 1947 and today. To some extent, alcohol consumption has increased because of affluence—people simply have more disposable income and more choices. It is also worth noting that people live rather longer than they did in 1947. One must take into account a range of factors concerning how people live today. Clearly, there is a hard core of people who drink multiples of what they should. That is the problem of alcohol abuse. Sometimes they are older people, but they are not necessarily poor, and we also seem to have a problem with young people in some of our city centres. One need only go through the range of Sky channels on television and find a programme about city centre policing to see the problems and costs of alcohol on Friday and Saturday nights. I believe that pricing is less of a factor than other hon. Members believe. It is a factor, especially when people buy from supermarkets, but it is also a question of supply. If we want to stop children getting alcohol, we must get alcohol out of the home. Almost any home, including mine, will have gin, whisky and various other things sitting in a sideboard somewhere, which will probably not be locked. Some years ago, I was taken out one evening in a Dorset police van. The police were picking up schoolchildren aged 13 or 14, almost all of whom had alcohol, almost all of which came from the parental home. The police would take the children home and show the parents, most of whom were unaware that their kids had alcohol and that that alcohol was missing from their drinks cabinet. Therefore, the first thing we must focus on is parenting. How do we keep an eye on what children get up to because of peer pressure as they get older? Price would not affect that, because a youngster could easily take a bottle of gin from home. That is an important factor. Another factor is that we need role models to persuade youngsters to act more responsibly. Sometimes, the footballers whom people aspire to be like these days are not always the best role models for youngsters. The debate relates to the Health Committee's report on alcohol. It ought to be said that the drinks industry is very important. There was an exchange earlier in the debate about Scotland: the scotch industry is important in areas of our country where alternative jobs might not be so easy to get, and it is a major exporter that creates wealth for our country; and the brewing industry involves more than 400,000 jobs. In my dealings with the industry as a Member of Parliament, and before that as a councillor, I have found that the vast bulk of it is responsible. The industry appreciates that it must be responsible—the House ought to acknowledge the Portman Group and other initiatives that have been funded to promote responsible drinking.