Fishburn Hedges

04.06.2010

The only thing that can be predicted about the impending World Cup with certainty is that at some point, there will be a Daily Mail headline about drunken British louts. Watching football with a pint in hand (or a glass of wine for the ladies out there), is something of a national pastime and the World Cup presents huge opportunities for retailers and pubs alike.

But the ready availability of cheap alcohol means that some take it too far and the cliché of the drunken football lout is one the media know only too well.

Which is why an interesting battle of reputation has started off the pitch. Tesco got in first with a call for minimum pricing for alcohol - a neat way to get ahead of their competitors on this issue and deflect any criticism that might be coming the supermarkets' way for selling booze at incredibly low prices. Their claim to have to compete on price owing to a lack of government legislation also positions them as supporting an intended policy of the new government and earned them a supportive nod from Andrew Lansley, the new Health Secretary.

Next to enter the fray was Diageo, along with the British Retail Consortium and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, who claimed there is no evidence that minimum pricing will prevent alcohol misuse. They would be expected to take this stance but there is some credibility to the argument that tackling pricing alone is not enough to address the deep-seated causes of the problem.

Then NICE joined in with a call for a blanket ban on alcohol advertising, plus a minimum unit price for alcohol, suggesting 50p a unit. This would raise the price of a supermarket priced bottle of vodka from £8 to £13. The idea has strong backing from health campaigners and doctors and the Scottish government is already looking at something like this.

So, this is set to run and run and we can expect a few more players to speak out. The question is, as legislative decisions loom, will someone take a decisive lead, or will it go to penalties after extra time?

Posted by Jo Bradley