Just the tonic?

FOLLOWING a freedom of information request linked to a programme on 18 January about Buckfast tonic wine, the BBC revealed that the drink was mentioned in 5,638 Strathclyde Police crime reports in the period 2006-9.

The reports also showed that a Buckfast bottle was used as a weapon on 114 occasions, or roughly once every ten days.

The larger of these figures has been restated many times since, including in your report (11 March) that sales of Buckfast in England have increased significantly.

That the police were able to provide figures over a three-year period suggests a systematic recording of information of this kind.

A number of questions come to mind. At what point in the process were suspects questioned about their consumption?

Did this happen when they were apprehended and, hence, as we are generally led to believe, not only legless but mindless? Or were they asked to recollect the following day what they had consumed – total and accurate recall being unlikely? Were they asked specifically about Buckfast? Is there any analysis of the combination of drinks consumed? For example, it is quite possible that a few slugs of Buckfast were followed by substantial quantities of other products, and possibly drugs. In how many cases was there a specific mention of other brands of alcohol, and what were they?

Statistics must always be treated with suspicion especially, as in this case, where a single figure is being used, not least by politicians, to define a complex social issue.

ALAN R IRONS

Woodrow Road

Glasgow