This time last year, Scotland introduced minimum unit pricing for alcohol. The logic behind the policy rested on a study by Sheffield University that claimed a minimum price of 50p per unit, as was legislated for in Scotland, would “reduce alcohol consumption in Scotland by 3.5% or 26.3 units per drinker per year.” Expenditure on alcohol was only predicted to rise by the negligible amount of 0.7%. How did the expert predictions fare..?

Actually expenditure on alcohol has risen by more than fifteen times their prediction – 10.7%. As for the number of units consumed, the thing they were trying to lower… units consumed increased by 1%. Now in whatever the opposite of evidence based policy is, the Welsh Government is looking to implement the same failed policy. Governments should leave people to drink their mojitos in peace…