Put up beer prices. Imagine if the Tories actually went into the election with a plan to raise taxes on beer. Electoral suicide.

Wine will cost Guido a few Euros a bottle next month in France, are the French suffering more alcoholism? No. If the propensity to booze was related to the cost wouldn’t richer people be more likely to be drunks? Binge drinking is a cultural thing, not a fiscal thing. The Irish do it, Brits do it, Poles do it. In fact most North European countries do it. Boozing to destruction will not be reduced by just putting prices up.

Guido seems to recall that IDS actually drove a lot of Tories to drink.