Nanny State’s costly social experiment

SCOTLAND’S relationship with alcohol is complex and, yes, problematic.

Many take genuine pleasure in a drink and excess is not an issue for them.

Others imbibe too much, with health implications. For a minority, alcohol is an addiction every bit as disastrous as narcotics and with all the same dreadful results for their wellbeing and relationships.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Scotland can become the first country in the world to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol.

But even proponents accept minimum pricing cannot hope to solve all the ills – it is a blunt instrument.

It was right, then, that the Scotch Whisky Association challenged the Scottish Government via the courts.

The SNP insisted its target was cheap super- strength ciders, beers and spirits involved in low-rent binge-drinking.

Scotch whisky and our burgeoning gin production are in a different league, however. As major employers and key exporters, their producers deserve proper scrutiny of any change to the law that might adversely affect them.

How much impact on public health the forthcoming changes will have is yet to be seen. Problem drinkers are unlikely to be snapped out of addictive behaviour simply by having to spend more. Most will, sadly, find the money somewhere.

For the majority of us, the changes are likely to have little major impact, though supermarket ‘ meal deals’ involving drink may vanish.

But there is genuine concern that the SNP is yet again legislating against the many while trying to target a few, using the sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Often the SNP seems to be engaged in a giant and expensive social experiment, trying to forcibly change the behaviour of millions to match its template of what is acceptable and desirable.

That is a dangerous game in which politicians risk over-reaching themselves. What area of life will they elbow their way into next? Sugary and fatty foods may well be the Nanny State’s next target.

The SNP has a nasty habit of conflating party and country, forever thinking it speaks for Scotland as a whole. It needs to pay more attention to broader public opinion and not just to its internal zealots.

We have seen a slew of laws on smoking, licensing hours, even football songs – yet, as John MacLeod argues compellingly elsewhere on this page, politicians are our servants and not our masters.

And as ever with the SNP, there are already questions about how well the alcohol legislation will be framed.

The SNP has won this first round but it will be a very long time before we see whether its plans bear significant fruit.