Bootlegger’s bliss

Health Secretary Shona Robison is overly optimistic when she says that bringing in a minimum unit price for alcohol in Scotland is not likely to lead to trips south of the Border to stock up on cheaper booze (your report, 28 February). The Scottish Government’s proposed minimum price is a bootleggers’ charter. Currently, a three-litre bottle of cheap cider can be bought for under £4. After minimum pricing is imposed, it will have to be sold for £11 approximately, an increase of £7.

Assuming the price in England remains at the lower end, and a “reasonable” profit for a bootlegger and a reasonable extra cost for a cheap cider lover would be half of the rise, £3.50, then you would have to sell only ten bottles “off the back of a lorry” in the black market to cover costs – £25 day hire for a small van and £10 approximately on petrol. How many bottles can you get in the back of a small van? 400? 600?

And these are retail prices – the profit will be even greater if you buy wholesale, or indeed, if the minimum price per unit is increased in the future.

Yet again the Scottish Government seems blissfully unaware of the second order implications of proposed legislation.

(LT COL) STUART CRAWFORD Hailes Green Haddington, East Lothian