Government botches its red card for alcohol

The coalition’s new bill on alcohol is a shoddy pre-election pretence at controlling a menace in our midst

Tom McGurk
Tom McGurk

Sadness. That was my primary emotion on reading through the Public Health Alcohol Bill 2015, published last week. Why? Because a unique opportunity has been lost.

It has taken years to reach publication and it has been around endless houses. In the end, the government has sought to find a painless way out of the growing public concern at what our alcohol industry is inflicting on young people.

Given the usual timescale for ...