AN ALCOHOL STRATEGY FOR ENGLAND: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

( Received 25 June 2004; first review notified 27 June 2004; in revised form 15 July 2004; accepted 15 July 2004 )On March 15, 2004, the UK Government published its long awaited National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England (NAHRSE) (PMSU, 2004). The Government first announced its plans to prepare an alcohol strategy in 1998, and it is unclear why it has taken 6 years to publish it. The delay may be related to disagreements between government departments with competing interests in alcohol policy. A similar alcohol policy initiative in 1979 by the last Labour Government resulted in a report ( Alcohol Policies ) that was never published in the UK, but instead was published in Sweden without the agreement of the UK Government (Bruun, 1982). So at least we should be grateful that England has an alcohol strategy. Or should we?We certainly need a strategy to combat the rising tide of alcohol problems in the UK. It is clear from the published research and the government's Interim Analytical Report, upon which the strategy is allegedly based (PMSU, 2004), that between 1960 and 2002 alcohol consumption in the UK has doubled, whilst the price of alcohol relative to income has halved over that period (Academy of Medical Sciences, 2004). This has been accompanied by a large increase in alcohol-related harm.While there are some welcome measures revealed in the strategy, it has been broadly criticized by those interested in public health (Alcohol Concern, 2004; British Medical Association, 2004; Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2004). This paper reviews the development of the strategy, its content, and identifies some of the ‘good’, the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ parts.First the good parts. NAHRSE highlights the scale of excessive drinking and alcohol problems in the UK over the past two decades. There are …