Sir, – Paul Walsh of Diageo (Business This Week, October 26th) perfectly exemplifies the alcohol consumption- health damages impasse. He aims to increase consumption by a variety of promotional mechanisms (including “drink responsibly”). Contrariwise the health lobby’s objective is to reduce it in the light of inconvertible evidence that consumption levels relate positively to damages.
In between is a Government caught in a policy dilemma of recession-related alcohol tax decline on the one hand, and concerns with damages on the other, despite improvement in some alcohol-related health indicators since recession, such as a decline in youth suicide. – Yours, etc,