http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-s ... s-20851921

Why don't you just admit it's a stealth tax and stop fannying about? There's merit in the EC proposals and I hope they win out.

Not having read the Scottish Govt's proposals I'm not entirely clear as to where any extra money raised by minimum pricing would go but in principle it should only affect alcohol that's less than the proposed minimum price (I suspect it will be used to raise prices across the board by the drinks companies as they oppose the measure and want to make it not work or at least work in their favour). It could be a stealth tax but that depends very much on how it's implemented and who keeps the extra revenue.

The EU proposal is to raise tax on all alcohol across the board or do something else without specifying what that is.

If implemented properly minimum pricing should only affect super cheap and/or super strong booze which is what is claimed to cause most of the problems in the first place whilst leaving more sensibly prices drink relatively untouched. If you slap more tax on across the board you hit moderate drinkers and put more pressure on struggling pubs (and essentially force more people to drink at home).

Am I confident minimum pricing can be done properly by the governments north or south of the border? No, not really but the EU's proposal is a very definite tax hike that's likely to do more harm than good.

I have more faith in the EC proposals simply because they're a fcuksight more honest about it, but they also seem to be better directed and slightly more detailed, going by the article. At this stage they're only proposals, and I'd guess they'd rather Scotland sorted it out sensibly, rather than forcing it through and hoping for the best. Be entertaining at least if the EC makes a case out of it...

It looks like some governments want to retain export markets so are against the policy. I suspect that our government are deliberately setting the price lower so to get scots to buy in England rather than Scotland.

I honestly thought the pricing policy already applied in Scotland. I've noticed that most special offers on booze now say "not available in Scotland" on them.

While I do support the pricing policy in theory I do suspect that there might be better ways to deal with the problems of excessive drinking.