Supermarkets have been criticised for selling cheap alcohol by a coroner after a 64 year old man in Norfolk drank himself to death for less than £10 He was found to have a blood alcohol level of more than six times the drink-drive limit.

In Russia the government, concerned that half the deaths of Russians aged 15-54 were caused by alcohol have doubled the price of the cheapest vodka to £3.60 a litre. In the UK the cheapest vodka in supermarkets is around £10 per litre, with some recent reports claiming that our government is considering more than doubling the price in the next Budget, on March 24th.

A litre of 37.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) spirit contains 40 single measures of 25 millilitres, or 40 units, against the government’s recommended maximum of four units a day for men and three for women. A 70 centilitre bottle contains 28 units

There is a view that simply raising the minimum price of alcohol would be a government cop-out that would needlessly punish millions of responsible drinkers when they should be punishing the few hundred thousand irresponsible ones.