Minimum pricing, the law and the dominance of 'public health'

I wrote a piece for Spectator Health about the Scottish court ruling that sided with the government in the minimum pricing case.

Those of us who voted Leave in June understood that there is a trade-off between sovereignty and trade. The SNP are an overtly paternalistic party with authoritarian tendencies, but they have been resoundingly elected by the Scottish people. If they want to drain the pockets of the poor by putting a deadweight cost on alcohol, there is a case for respecting their sovereignty. On the other hand, they are party to a trade deal in the form of the common market which, until today, seemed to forbid such actions. 

For those of us who like free markets and oppose minimum pricing, the EU’s ban on such restrictive practices was one of the things we were going to miss after Brexit. After today, it is one less thing to worry about.

Do read the rest.

I suspect that this will now got to the Supreme Court. The judge's rationale was far from compelling and, to my mind, did not fully engage with the objections raised by the European Court of Justice. We shall see, but I don't think the lawyers are going to lose out from this saga.