News and Press

Author Irvine Welsh Calls on Politicians to Curb Culture of Cheap Alcohol

23 Nov 2009

Politicians are being urged to ‘stand up and be counted’ and take effective action to curb the culture of cheap alcohol by author and filmmaker Irvine Welsh.

Author and filmmaker Welsh said today:

“Scotland has a growing problem with alcohol abuse. More people, younger people and more women than ever before are at risk from being encouraged to over-consume this drug. This has an incalculable impact on the NHS and also on our social services through the pressure illness and harmful drinking puts on families.

In Scotland, our cultural relationship with alcohol interfaces negatively with resilient poverty to maintain the long-running embarrassment of this weeping sore on our social fabric. 'Cheap bevy' is part of that culture. We know that the price and availability of alcohol products have a strong relationship to the amount of alcohol consumed. This is a major social issue and needs to be tackled as such by our politicians in a democracy, and this should transcend the concerns of those in the alcohol industry who feel their profitability will be compromised. Very few would want to go back to the days when the tobacco industry determined policy on smoking. Now politicians should stand up and be counted and move us on to a new era where how much we drink will not be determined by the alcohol industry lobby.”

Welsh’s call coincides with the launch of a campaign by health advocacy group Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) to encourage people to change the way they think about alcohol. The ‘change’ campaign challenges the notion that harmful drinking is part of Scotland’s culture and cannot be changed.

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