Keep pressing on Nicola

Excellent. Nicola Sturgeon has announced the proposed minimum price per unit of alcohol as 45p per unit. She never was one to be phased by opponents if she believed in what she was doing and she is passionately committed to eradicating Scotland's horrendous relationship with alcohol. The opponents, of course, are primarily opposition politicians with games to play and the Labour alcohol commission that decided it was all too hard for us daft wee Scots so we'd better let the Tory government in Westminster sort it all out. Supporters include most experts in the field.

I keep saying this but it's worth repeating. For me the best thing about minimum pricing is that it will strongly discourage young kids and young adults without an income from buying cheap potent alcohol as they can do right now. It's not about stopping alcoholics from buying it, as many have said if you're addicted you'll do what you have to do to get your hands on drink - that, is a different problem that needs to be tackled differently. What this will do is make it far less likely that folk will start drinking in the first place.

I am working with folk in the East End of Glasgow right now looking at how we can deal with gang violence and they tell me the trigger is almost always young folk hanging about the streeets with nothing to do but drink the easily gotten (because it's so cheap) potent alcohol you can buy with your pocket money. Well no more! Scotland's had enough. The SNP Government's had enough and it's time to get our alcohol problems sorted once and for all.