BMA and Tesco plan cheap booze ban

It's an unlikely coalition: the supermarket chain Tesco led by a man tagged as the "godfather of British binge drinking" and the doctors' lobby group which has accused ministers of working too closely with the alcohol industry.

The move comes as British teenagers have been labelled the biggest drinkers in Europe.

For years supermarkets have denied any responsibility for the growing phenomenon of binge drinking in Britain.

Now, finally, Tesco has said cheap alcohol may need to be banned because "we have a role to play" in addressing the problem of anti-social drinking.

But is Tesco really serious - or is this just a neat promotional trick?

As Tesco were calling for a debate on responsible pricing this morning, their website was offering cut price promotions on drinks - a third off crates of wine and value larger at just 20p a can.

Tesco won't raise prices unilaterally. They want all the big supermarkets to act together. But that would constitute a price fixing cartel which would fall foul of competition law.

Recent research for the BMA shows, that over the past 20 years as affordability rises, with a glut of cheap drinks, so does consumption by the same amount. But the industry is still not convinced.

Recently the supermarkets did agree to raise milk prices - they said to help farmers. But despite lofty motives - they were still fined £100m by The Office of Fair Trading.

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