Govt ‘will have to stem flow of shoppers across border’

I know this is an old thread but an article in the independent says that cross border trade is back with a bang due to the cost of living crisis . Supermarkets are reporting shoppers coming from as far away as Cork. Of course the key driver of this is alcohol prices. It appears that all the predictions about the effects of minimum unit pricing are now being borne out that it would drive cross border trade
 
People with enough money to use a couple of tanks of petrol or diesel are spending a full day to acquire alcohol. Therefore it's nothing to do with any cost of living crisis since alcohol is a luxury good.
 
Nor really because you need to have alcohol around for Christmas due to visitors calling etc, it might not actually be for personal consumption. However alcohol prices would be the driver in convincing people to go north because the differential is so large now. When you are there you will shop for other stuff while you are there and possibly stay over for the night.

That's why MUP was a brain dead policy and a huge own goal. Even more crazy considering that inflation was also about to take off but was being dismissed then .The government didn't have the stomach to stand up to the NGOs and just say No
 
joe sod said:
Nor really because you need to have alcohol around for Christmas due to visitors calling etc, it might not actually be for personal consumption.
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It's still not a necessity.
joe sod said:
However alcohol prices would be the driver in convincing people to go north because the differential is so large now.
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The UK committing economic self harm through Brexit and electing nutters to lead their country with the resulting devaluation of their currency is a key factor in the price differential. We are in the unfortunate position of having a government which is generally very competent on economic matters.
joe sod said:
That's why MUP was a brain dead policy and a huge own goal. Even more crazy considering that inflation was also about to take off but was being dismissed then .The government didn't have the stomach to stand up to the NGOs and just say No
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Again, it's a luxury item and it's harmful. Taxing it more to reduce consumption is a good idea as there's a knock on saving in healthcare costs. Charging drunk people the full cost of their A&E visit would also be a good thing but that's a different issue.
 
It's not a brexit issue as we also have much higher alcohol prices than the rest of europe. If anything a hard brexit would have made it harder to bring alcohol down from the North like the 1980s where people were hiding it from customs officials at the border. Thankfully that didn't happen so people can shop in the North to their heart's content. Therefore economically it was a stupid policy and should have been thrown out on that basis alone.
The government could have increased the excise taxes on alcohol a bit thereby taking in more revenue but not enough to entice people across the border. Instead they went with the sledge hammer of MUP
As regards currency that's not a factor as sterling was cheaper last year before MUP also some alcohol sold here is produced in the UK but retailers are not allowed to pass on any potential savings to consumers so the distributors and the retailers take the extra margin. I repeat it was a brain dead policy
 
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MUP isn't a tax though - most of the increased price goes to retailers. Whatever about the merits of bringing in MUP in conjunction with the North (and I'm extremely doubtful on its benefits) bringing it in without them made no sense and was flagged at the time as a bad idea that would lead to this.
 
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