Alcohol licences rejected after warning from NHS over health concernsA supermarket and two independent retailers have had their alcohol licence application rejected after objections from the local health board.
WHAT?!?
Sainsbury’s wanted to open a new store in the Cowgate, Edinburgh as part of the development of a site which was destroyed by a fire in 2002. NHS Lothian warned the Edinburgh Licensing Board that granting the licence went against the protection of public health.
Are you kidding me? What kind of moron would give bureaucrats from the NHS the power to reject planning applications?
The Scottish Government have recently given health boards the chance to object to new licences.
Oh, sweet devolution. This is local option for the twenty-first century—the preferred halfway house for would-be prohibitionists since time immemorial.
New guidelines were introduced in Edinburgh in February to prevent overprovision.
If only there was some other way to prevent over (or under) provision. If only we had some sort of mechanism whereby 'supply' fluctuated to meet 'demand'. In such a system, businesses would carry out research into whether there was sufficient demand for their services before investing and would go bust if their research was wrong. We could call this system a market.
NHS Lothian is not in the least bit interested in letting grown adults buy what they want, especially if those adults are working class. This is a case of middle class hypocrites clamping down on the plebs. You think I exaggerate? Read this...
Earlier this year, Tesco avoided a ban by arguing that residents of Roseburn are healthy and middle class. They were given the go-ahead for a new licensed shop after a lawyer argued the residents of upmarket Roseburn were “bottle of wine on the way home” drinkers.
Wow. Rarely is fear and loathing of the proletariat made more explicit than this.
To help crack down on lenient licensing, Police were also asked to supply the board with evidence which showed there had been 85 crimes within a 50m radius of the proposed store between last month and the previous March 2011.
Well, duh. It's a rundown area in need of regeneration, which would have been provided by building a supermarket, cleaning up the area and creating jobs. None of which will happen now because some unelected mandarins at the NHS find it morally objectionable that supermarkets sell alcohol.
A concerned resident in the Cowgate, Catriona Grant, submitted a public objection to the board.
Our "concerned resident" wouldn't be this Catriona Grant by any chance?
Catriona Mary Grant (born 1969) is a founder member and former co-chair of the Scottish Socialist Party and the party's equalities spokesperson.
Oh yes. That's her.
So let me get this straight. A perfectly respectable supermarket chain has been prevented from opening a new shop because a socialist "avenger" objects to the existence of supermarkets and a bunch of self-styled public health experts don't like working people buying alcohol. What other outcome can there be when you hand power over to this rabble of unelectable reactionaries?
Do hurry up with that referendum please Mr Salmond.
