Should there be a minimum price for alcohol?

THE customers are the ones who should decide on the value of goods, based on what we are willing to pay. In Scotland, the result of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon manipulating the price of alcohol will result in it becoming just another form of tax.

BRIAN CHRISTLEY, Abergele, Conwy. WE SCOTS have had a minimum price for alcohol imposed on us by those we elected, who will continue to enjoy subsidised drinks paid for by the electors.

A. GRANT, Glasgow.

OF COURSE there are problems with alcohol addiction, but when you price it out of the market, you are simply encouraging bootleggers. There is already a flourishing black market of counterfeit alcohol and now Scots will see ‘booze cruises’ across the border. Will high prices solve alcoholism? No. It’s just that the rich will be able to offset their alcohol purchasing with tax allowances while the poor drunk will be drinking moonshine.

S. T. VAUGHAN, Birmingham. CAN we expect a run on the off-licences and supermarkets of Carlisle and Berwick-upon-Tweed? Coach companies from Thurso to Troon will be planning a booze bonanza. And before long canny businessmen will be opening new outlets in English border towns.

DAI WOOSNAM, Grimsby.

UPPING the cost of a dram will result in ‘offies’ over the border being inundated by Scots buying booze. This will plunge the Scottish economy further into debt. There will be an increase in the use of legal highs, with a knock-on effect to the NHS. Remember what happened during Prohibition: alcohol consumption went sky-high and people died after drinking dangerous substances.

PAUL KELD, Romsey, Hants.