His masters voice...

Another day another U turn by the government. First it was plain packaging for cigarettes, now it's minimum alcohol pricing (Though only in England and Wales as the Scots have their own puritans to put up with) I'm sure there will be a lot of talk about why the measure was dropped, but the real reason is that Cameron's masters said no.
BBC.

The government has shelved plans to introduce a minimum price for a unit of alcohol in England and Wales.
Minister Jeremy Browne said the policy would remain "under consideration" but there were fears the change would hit responsible drinkers.
A ban on multi-buy promotions has been rejected but sales will not be allowed below the cost of alcohol duty and VAT.
Labour said the government had done a U-turn on a flagship policy that both the PM and home secretary had backed.
Mr Browne said problem drinking turned towns and cities into effective "no-go areas" for many people, was seen as instrumental in many violent attacks and cost the taxpayer £21bn a year in crime and health issues.

Usual bollocks by Labour, the real reason most people drink and get into bother is the fact that politicians have made us so bloody miserable. There are laws to deal with drunks and drunken behaviour, might make a change to actually apply them rather than dance around the edges.
Anyhoo... The real reason Cameron dropped the measure is that what was proposed was against EU laws and we all know despite what he says, Cameron is in love with the stinking corrupt edifice. So having been unable to find a way around EU law, he was forced to drop the measure. Not that I'd expect you to read that in the MSM but as far as I can tell that's the real reason.
That the measure was manifestly unfair to responsible drinkers made not one jot of difference to the control freaks who infest parliament and if you read the full article you can read the dribble they come out with though it is nausea inducing.
Interfering with freedom of choice is always a risky business for any organisation, unfortunately, politicians cannot seem to learn this lesson and find more and more ways to interfere.
Then they wonder why they lose power...