This is a lie

David Cameron lived up to one if his nicknames the other day when he made an astonishing pronouncement about supermarkets and binge drinking, that nickname being Camoron.
Telegraph.

Middle class families are being charged more for every day food in supermarkets to subsidise cheap alcohol deals for binge drinkers, David Cameron has said.
The Prime Minister claimed that “a family with a reasonable drinking habit” was “actually subsidising the binge drinker” because supermarkets were increasing the price of food to fund cuts in the cost of wine, beer and cider. The comments, to a group of factory workers in north Wales, provoked astonishment from supermarkets last night. The British Retail Consortium said the remarks were “nonsense” and demanded to know what the evidence was for the claims, while a spokesman for Sainsburt said the Prime Minister was "plain wrong".. But Downing Street stuck to its guns, citing an article from a medical journal in 2009 by a leading liver specialist which suggested supermarkets were overcharging for food to pay for cheap drink.

The clue is in the last bit in which a leading liver specialist 'suggested' supermarkets were overcharging on food. No doubt the leading liver specialist checked with the supermarkets or simply presumed that supermarkets were stupid enough to sell a popular product at a loss continually.
Thing is whilst supermarkets will occasionally put a 'loss leader' into their stores, it's likely to be spread over a wide range of products and is more likely to be a buy one get one free and may just be bread rolls or yoghurt's. What they don't tend to do is discount cheap alcohol, particularly at the bottom of the range or spirits.

Andrew Opie, the food director of the British Retail Consortium, said: “This is nonsense. What evidence? The Government’s own figures show alcohol prices rising at exactly the same rate as food prices.

Nonsense indeed though it's a bit milder than my thoughts about it being a blatant lie thrown out because the powers that be hate the idea that people might be enjoying themselves a bit too much or that somehow or other if they keep putting the price up people won't find something else (probably illegal) to help them forget how hard life is a and just what a bunch of bastards the political classes are. Prohibition doesn't work, never has, never will the man in a van who sell cheap ciggies has proved that, he'll no doubt branch out into booze if the government makes it worth his while. I expect booze cruises to start up soon enough as well, if minimum pricing goes through, the retailers of Calais will be rubbing their hands at the idiocy of the UK government.

Research carried out by Sheffield University for the Government has showed that a 45p minimum would reduce the consumption of alcohol by 4.3 per cent, leading to 2,000 fewer deaths and 66,000 hospital admissions after 10 years.
The number of crimes would drop by 24,000 a year as well, researchers suggested.

The clue is in the last word...
Suggested...
The twats don't know but are saying stuff the government wants to hear, bit like climate change and the other green bollocks that the government use as tax grabs, because that's all minimum alcohol pricing is, in the end if it's government it's a tax grab.