The Road to Prohibition

Mr Cameron is whining about drinkers again, amd this time his targets are the supermarkets. The naughty people are selling drinks at prices people can afford ( or as he says, underpriced drinks).

The result being that the degenerate Brits are getting tanked up at home on the Tesco grog, and going out to the pub later to finish off. Cue violence and vomiting in the streets. Leaving aside the fact that it is a little odd to hear a supposed Conservative attacking supply-driven economics, why doesn't he ask himself why all these rapscallions are doing their drinking at home? I can supply an answer, courtesy of Commons Research paper 99/111, 'A Century of Change: Trends in UK statistics since 1900'.

The graph shows that since the 1970s, the price of beer, in real terms, has doubled. According to the prohibition lobby, raising the price of alcohol reduces drunkenness. Shouldn't we all be teetotalers by now, then?