Fuck off Don.

Minimum pricing on the demon booze.

One of Don's favorite rants is that of minimum pricing per unit on the demon drink.

Thankfully The Devil's Kitchen has a rather good bit on how the EU has declared minimum pricing to be illegal.
Cigarette price-fixing infringes EU law
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that Irish legislation fixing a minimum retail price for cigarettes infringes EU law.

The legislation here breaches Directive 95/59 which has rules on excise duty affecting the consumption of tobacco products.

It falls to the evil drinks industry to state the obvious:

Gavin Hewitt, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, said: “Given this latest evidence, the Scottish government must now recognise the legal realities. It cannot introduce a trade barrier in breach of the UK’s European obligations by imposing minimum pricing on alcohol in Scotland.”

Best of all was this bit:

And the European Commission has made it pretty clear that it will not tolerate minimum pricing for alcohol:

The Court of Justice of the European Communities (“the Court”) has ruled that national rules fixing retail prices for alcoholic beverages could constitute measures having an equivalent effect to quantitative restrictions on imports contrary to Article 28 EC. This would be the case if, for example, prices were set at such a level that imported products were placed at a disadvantage in relation to identical domestic products.

So do be a good chap Don and fuck the fuck off out of our lives, no one has voted for you to dictate to us on drinks or matters political; or your fake charity Alcohol Concern that is funded by government handout's to spout lies and half truths.


Without taxpayer cash your so called charity would dry up and blow away in the wind like an old dog turd. 

Don starting off 2010 with lies and hype....

So much like 2009 then really.

First up a fluff scare the plebs bit of nonsense from rubbish tabloid The Daily Star on the shock horror of supermarkets supplying customer demand for cheap booze.

Don Shenker, of Alcohol Concern, said: “Supermarkets which sell alcohol at pocket money prices are contributing to the problems which alcohol can cause.” - See the sidebar on how the price has actually gone up in real terms repeatedly thanks to rises in duty by HM Govt.

Next up prohibitionist Don trots out the we have to save children argument. URGENT action to raise the cost of booze was demanded today after a shock survey revealed the true extent of Birmingham’s underage drinking problem.

Pressure group Fake Charity funded by your tax money Alcohol Concern said the price of beer needed to rise.

The organisation spoke out after the shocking drinking figures were laid bare in a city council scrutiny report into drug and alcohol misuse among adults and children in Birmingham.

Chief executive Don Shenker said: “Sadly it’s now the norm for schoolchildren to be drinking at younger ages.

“And when they do drink, they are drinking larger amounts that are beyond youthful experimentation.

“Without government action on pocket-money prices and easy availability of alcohol, this is a worrying trend that’s likely to continue.” 

But Don misses the point that they are in fact, underage. Therefore breaking the law and what he is pushing for is to punish those who obey the law, rather than the young criminals. Maybe if the police and Blunkett's bobbies spent a bit more time enforcing the law, the problem could be dealt with.

Next up Don trots out the same old lies and half truths on BBC Pravda

Don Shenker, from campaign group fake taxpayer funded quango Alcohol Concern, told the BBC the proposals would not prevent people being able to "pre-load" with alcohol from supermarkets, and would not stop pubs and clubs selling a pint of lager for under £1.

"It is just tinkering with the price issue rather than decisive action," he said. "We need a minimum price per unit of alcohol which will affect pubs, clubs, off-licences and supermarkets."

Earlier this month, a Commons health select committee report estimated that a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol would prevent 3,000 deaths a year.

Despite there being no evidence that 50p a unit - see the sidebar on how units are meaningless - will in fact save any lives at all.

Next up the lie that booze has become cheaper, when in fact it has risen is trotted out to the press association.

Chief Executive of waste of my tax cash fake charity Alcohol Concern Don Shenker said that the falling price of alcohol in recent decades had boosted the amount Britons drink. He said: "The attitude that has been created is that alcohol is an ordinary commodity. Now we can buy alcohol in supermarkets it's all over the place, it's not separated off any more."

Do check the sidebar again on the lie about cheap booze, remember HM Govt gets a cut from every pint you drink. Oh and the shock, the horror that ordinary poor folk can go and buy the demon drink without it being "separated off any more.", we really must end the free market.

Down with that sort of thing.

Another quote from this unelected chap in The Mirror, a paper well known for its lack of reporting and making up of scare stories.

Don Shenker of Alcohol Concern said the Government was "tinkering" when "decisive action" was needed.

Here is some action for you Don, why don't you get off the taxpayer funded gravy train, get a real job and fuck the fuck off.

That cheap booze lie repeated by Don.

Repeat a lie often enough and it will become the new truth. I spotted this classic lie in the media.

Fake charity Chief Executive of Alcohol Concern Don Shenker said that the falling price of alcohol in recent decades had boosted the amount Britons drink. He said: "The attitude that has been created is that alcohol is an ordinary commodity. Now we can buy alcohol in supermarkets it's all over the place, it's not separated off any more."

Ah now there it is, the open lie, do check the sidebar and you will see that it has in fact risen in price and keeps on rising.

A certain German painter and decorator would be so proud of Don and his quango.

The truth as the Office of National Statistics shows, this is utter horse cock:

Between 1980 and 2008, the price of alcohol increased by 283.3%. After considering inflation (at 21.3%), alcohol prices increased by 19.3% over the period.

So that's one lie debunked, just don't expect Don to tell you that, despite your taxes pay for his out and out lies.

Any excuse to nanny.

Next up from the Nanny state, you will love this one.

The Express has a story on some drunk driver who was 5 times over the legal limit which of course is the perfect excuse for fake charity head man Don, to call for you all to be punished with higher taxes.

Don Shenker, of quango Alcohol Concern, said: “Drink driving causes fatalities and misery for those involved in accidents.

“The relative risk of a drink-drive accident increases significantly after 50mg in 100ml blood alcohol.”

Another excuse for Don to nanny. Remember Don is paid for by your taxes, funded by you to lobby HM Govt for tighter controls and more taxes on your drinks.

No one voted for him, elected him to any public office and yet there he is spreading his half truths and lies on the demon drink.

Don back in the media at your expense.

First up we have a Pravda style media spin over at Community Care.

Now before I put Don's rubbish across remember that his group is a quango, a small fake charity that is funded by your taxes in order to parrot the government's message.

Fake charity head of Alcohol Concern, Don Shenker said: "Giving the alcohol industry the upper hand is creating a catastrophe for the nation's health.

"With thousands of avoidable deaths and billions of pounds cost to the NHS, it beggars belief that the government is still dithering. "

Public health minister Gillian Merron said the government had adopted a strategic approach to tackling alcohol abuse but accepted that current levels of alcohol-related hospital admissions, crime and death were unacceptably high.

She said: "We will consider all of the committee's proposals carefully and respond to them formally in due course."

See what happened there, we have someone paid for by your money putting across the exact same message as HM Govt. Remember Don is there paid for by you, to call for more taxes on YOU.

Don growls at Wetherspoons.

The Daily Mail run with some classic howlers in this load of old horse cock. Pub chain JD Wetherspoon has sparked fears it is encouraging binge drinking by selling beer at just 99p a pint.

It is re-running its controversial ‘January sale’ campaign from last year – but this time it is extending the 99p deal to include glasses of wine and shots of gin.

Charities have condemned pubs which slash drink prices as ‘irresponsible’, saying it simply encourages people to drink more. Drink is already 60 per cent lower than it was in real terms in 1980.

Now I am no fan of chav booze seller JD Wetherscum, indeed I have often described them as a supermarket in pubs clothing. A soulless clone pub chain, devoid of all originality, with none of the games you find in real pubs and less atmosphere than the fucking moon. However, the demon booze argument has been debunked and should be nailed to cross and left to die once and for all.

Really? Sure about that "fact" about cheap booze are we Daily Mail? The truth as the Office of National Statistics shows, this is utter horse cock:

Between 1980 and 2008, the price of alcohol increased by 283.3%. After considering inflation (at 21.3%), alcohol prices increased by 19.3% over the period.

Nope, so that's one lie debunked.

It comes just a week after it emerged that almost a million people were admitted to hospital for drink-related reasons last year.

Okay, now lets debunk this one the almost a million people sounds a lot. Yet how many of them were mad pant pissing alcoholic's from Scotland, who see a trip to A and E as a weekly trip out. I am sure should the figures be broken down, the largest numbers will be spotty teens and repeat offenders like Mad Jock McPant Pisser.

Plus if factor in the fact that each night millions of people go out, enjoy themselves and do not end up splashing half a gallon of alco pop over some junior doctors shoes at 3AM, neither do they get arrested and suffer nothing more than a sore head in the morning. That however fails to make a story in the Daily Mail.

And naturally the self appointed moral guardian and new age prohibitionist one Don Shenker of fake charity and taxpayer funded quango Alcohol Concern : 'This is a shocking indictment on the Government's failure to tackle harms from alcohol misuse.

'The Government must take strong measures on the affordability and availability of alcohol to reduce the unnecessary burden on the NHS and improve everyone's health.

Note that Don is speaking as someone not elected to any office, who is funded by your taxes and believes he knows what is best for you. No matter what you may think.

Last year, the fake charity and quango Alcohol Concern condemned Wetherspoons’ move, saying that if the drinks industry did not regulate itself, the government should step in.

Don Shenker, chief executive of fake taxpayer funded non job quango Alcohol Concern, said: 'Alcohol is not an ordinary commodity like bread or milk.

'Alcohol causes harm to the nation's health and economy, and there appears to be a strong link between cheap alcohol and the high levels of binge drinking.'

If those are not the words of a thin lipped prohibitionist, a member of the New Labour funded temperance movement then I don't know what are?...