Another Bait & Switch - This Time With Alcohol

A British organization wants the government to prosecute parents who give children under 15 alcohol. Now, regardless of your stance on whether children of a certain age should be allowed to have alcohol and, if so, how much, and, if not, until what age, please notice the bait and switch used in the organization's justification for such a law: "Binge drinking by children can have serious consequences for brain function, significantly raises the risk of alcohol dependency in later life and diminishes their life chances."

So, the justification is that binge drinking is a problem. Even if the law were successful (which I doubt) in preventing binge drinking on the parts of minors, that does not justify outlawing all alcohol consumption by that demographic. That would be like outlawing driving because it would decrease the number of DUIs.

Oh, and for good measure, the organization, Alcohol Concern, "also wants a 16% rise in alcohol taxes, a ban on brewers selling to retailers at a loss, and a crackdown on under-age alcohol sales." I'm not sure if the first or the second one annoys me more. I generally do not like taxes, especially arbitrary ones that target a certain segment of the population or a certain activity just because some lobbying group has convinced the general population that there is something inherently evil going on. On the other hand, I really hate governments trying to dictate how a company can conduct its business.