BOOZE HIKE BOYOS PLAN AWAY DAIS!
Welsh in cheap drink raids
WELSH boozers will flood England to buy cheap drink if authorities bring in a minimum price of alcohol.
Yesterday plans were unveiled to make it illegal to sell booze for less than 50p per unit in the country.
The Welsh Assembly claim it will save lives, reduce crime and take the strain off NHS services.
But critics warn that Welsh shops will see a slump in trade as people bring alcohol back across the Severn by the barrel load.
Under the new ruling, the minimum price of a pint of beer could go from £1.08 to £1.42 while a 75cl bottle of wine could rise from £4.88 to £5.63.
Politicians are desperate to reduce the number of deaths caused by alcohol abuse, which claimed 460 lives in Wales in 2013.
But Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said it was wrong to “punish” the minority.
He said: “Minimum Unit Pricing will ramp up the cost of over half of the drinks on supermarket shelves and hit Welsh drinkers with at least £55m extra on their drinks bill, while doing nothing to tackle alcohol harm.
“The substantial cost of implementation and enforcement, and the risk of losing shoppers across the border, is likely to hit Welsh businesses and jobs, and the UK Treasury is set to lose out in £11m in revenues directly.”
Wales deputy health minister Vaughan Gething defended the move, saying: “Evidence shows introducing minimum unit price of 50p per unit would reduce alcohol consumption.”