Tim Almond

If you ever go to the west of France, I recommend a visit to the departmente of Charente. It’s full of people producing Cognac, and the main producers will take you on an English speaking tour into cellars full of barrels of Cognac slowly distilling. It’s wonderful.

On that tour, they also tell you some of the history of their houses and that of Cognac in general. One of the things they tell you is that brandy was originally produced as a tax dodge. The alcohol you brought in wasn’t measured by any means but crude volume, which meant that people could get pissed cheaper.

So, when I read the latest Conservative tax proposal, I had to wonder if there’s anyone left there who gets the thing that INCENTIVES AFFECT BEHAVIOUR.

Tax on “alcopops” would be trebled, but money raised would be used to reduce tax on low strength beer and cider. The Tories’ aim is to hit the drinks they believe fuel yobbish behaviour, without hitting “sensible” drinkers.

There are no drinks that fuel yobbish behaviour. There is no relationship between drinking cider and smashing things up*. The relationship is that the people who smash things up are young people, and young people typically like cider.

If people want to get pissed up, making high strength cider more expensive won’t get them to switch to low strength cider. They’ll just find something else that gets them pissed up, including drinks normally drank by “sensible” drinkers.

Tags: Politics //