MyShout

High duty on alcohol is not the cure for social problems - just look at Sweden, says Stephen Oliver

Alistair Darling presents his first Budget this week and by the time this article appears we'll know what he's done with taxes for non-doms, gas-guzzling cars, cheap flights and, most importantly for us, the price of drink.

The Sunday papers are full of gloom about his Budget deficit and the gap he's got to make up by screwing as much extra money out of taxpayers as possible. Of course, if he can make it seem virtuous as well, by justifying it on the grounds of environment or social impacts, so much the better.

I'm not going to predict what he'll say; after all, who'd have thought Barnsley would beat Chelsea? What I am sure of, though, is that we have a Government that is more hostile to our industry than any before it - despite the Daily Mail's protestations. It's easy to see that drink, which nowadays seems to be attached to the word "binge" like a Siamese twin, is Labour's bête noire. The Tories, once the party of the beer and distilling barons, are not its best chums, either. Cameron would unwind licensing laws and lump on extra taxes, too.

So let's be realistic. Alcohol, like fuel and cigarettes, is increasingly seen as socially undesirable by those who make up the rules and decide how much we pay for our pleasures. We may all look back on the last few years when duty increases were modest as being a "Golden Age". The BBPA has long lobbied for low duty increases, with some success, although the whisky and spirits companies hit the jackpot with a freeze.

This weekend, former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she had pleaded with the Treasury for higher alcohol duty "at every Budget" and felt its time had now come. "Alcohol in real terms is a great deal cheaper than it was 20 years ago and when young people have so much more money to spend, there's no doubt it is a contributing factor," she said.

She might do worse than persuade former Cabinet colleagues to go on a fact-finding mission to Sweden - one of the nations with the most highly taxed drinks. Its temperance movement began in the early 20th century as a reaction to abuse of spirits. The opponents to alcohol abuse also targeted beer and began to campaign for total prohibition. There was a narrow vote against, but the country was badly divided and the Government became very sensitive to the temperance lobby. Ever since, taxes have been astronomical. The impact of high taxes? In 1905 there were 240 breweries, by the late 1990s there were just 10. Did it make a difference? No. Total consumption of alcohol in Sweden has increased by approximately 30% in the last decade.

For some this is a strong argument for quick removal of the high taxes. "Around one-third of the alcohol sold here today is criminal alcohol," said Leif Carlson, a conservative member of the Swedish Parliament. "And a lot of things follow this. Mafia behaviour, violence. People have to see the facts. Life has changed. We can't get rid of alcohol; it is in society." Taxes alone are not the answer. As Gordon Brown's former boss once said, the answer's "education, education, education".