A Sobering Look at Boozy Britain

Binge drinking is seen as a British disease, but its causes are complex and politicians intrude at their peril, says Tim Stanley.

Hogarth’s Gin Lane

Aside from being fun and illuminating, History Today’s latest ebook, Last Orders: A Social History of Drinking, is also timely. The UK government is trying to crack down on binge drinking, which Tony Blair famously called ‘a new British disease’. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, wants to introduce minimum pricing for individual units of alcohol in order to discourage consumers from imbibing too much, too fast. Supermarket ‘value vodka’, or happy hour cocktails, might become a thing of the past.

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