ban on the sale of cheap alcohol , what will this mean?!

It will mean a minimum pricing

you'll be able to get everything you did before but it will be more expensive if it was below the limit before

It means it's the thin edge of the wedge. The proposal today is to block the sale of below-cost alcohol (excise + VAT cost), on 'health grounds'.

Pretty soon, it will be noticed that anyone who wishes to continue to buy alcohol continues to do so, albeit having to pay more. Your government will consider this a mighty wheeze, and will ratchet up the duty, just in the interests of our health you know, because they know what's best for us.

And pretty soon there will be yet another pernicious tax to add to the already ludicrous burden the British people have to bear.

This law will me nothing more than that the government will make more money.

Anyone who thinks that it will save lives or reduce drinking culture amongst young teens need a reality check!! If you do believe it will save lives and cost across the NHS they would be starting a bill to make cheap and disgusting food to have more tax on it too!!

We do not need laws to replace common sense and it should not be needed for the lack of education of the ugly truth of our culture!! What we need is better education and more hard hitting action for us to take responsibility for our actions instead of looking for a excuses and ways out of it!!

Too tired to answer this last night, but here goes.

This is what they want to do.

Cans of lager must be priced at 38p or more and vodka, whisky and gin must retail for at least ￡10.71 per litre, or around ￡7.50 for a standard 70cl bottle.
Ministers will today also say that wine must cost a minimum of ￡2 per bottle, while cans of cider could cost as little as 18p.

This falls short of what they said they would do. No surprise there!

What it really means is that the smuggling of cheap booze will increase, and the tax payer and the retailers will suffer.

BTW Why would anyone answer a question without even knowing what it as about?

It means the poor will be stopped from abusing alcohol, because the poor are the problem apparently.

The middle classes will be unaffected because it is well known that the middle classes are much more responsible and never ever get too pissed to vote when they are in the bar at the house of commons.
(Ref to Mark Reckless. Tory MP for Rochester.)

It will also serve to remind the working people of Britain that there is no end to the sanctions that can be handed down to them by the self serving, self righteous Tories and their friends in the banking industry... who are of course... teetotallers to a man! I have a friend who is a 'Merchant Banker'. His lunch expense account exceeds my salary. Most of it is spent on wine at Balls Brothers. I doubt that will change.

It means that there will be a minimum price per unit so if you already buy expensive premium beers, it won't make much difference to you. On the other hand if you buy cheap cider which contains more chemicals than apples and is likely to make you go blind, the price will increase substantially.

Don't worry Bud (InBev), Coors, et. al. have too much clout to have beer sales limited.

Without reading a story on this, I suspect they are referring to energy drinks with
alcohol as well as whatever parents of minors are complaining about.

It means you can still buy it but it will cost you more.