Letter: A Scots problem

Our unhappy relationship with alcohol is culturally embedded in Scottish life. The paradox is that many who confidently espouse that theory see themselves only as providers of solutions, not contributors to the problem.

This is seen in sharpest focus when people (mainly politicians) complain that measures such as the failed minimum-price-per-unit strategy (your report, 11 November) would have unfairly penalised "responsible" drinkers. Why should they pay for the excesses of others?

The answer is that if heavy drinking is a cultural problem and we are serious about challenging it, we are all responsible and have a part to play. Too few people - so-called "responsible" drinkers included - are prepared to meet the challenge head-on.

There are generations of middle-class, well educated people who still talk heroically about their drinking feats while simultaneously warning children about the dangers of bingeing or looking down their noses at those who satisfy habits similar to their own on Buckfast or cheap cider rather than chardonnay or expensive malt.

Until we confront our own relationship with alcohol, cultural change will remain out of reach.

Ian McKerron

Fairways

Milngavie, Glasgow

Scotland has a proud history; we look back to the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment who held an optimistic belief in the ability of man to effect changes for the better, guided by empiricism, reason and practicality.

The current alcohol debate appears to have become focused on alcohol's links to money - the tax, the pricing, the profit, the cost to the public purse - all of which are very relevant. But we should not think only of the monetary cost.

There is a cost to those who really are affected by the impact of alcohol, those secondary victims who have no choice in their situation and little control over it. It would be comforting to presume this was someone else's problem and those affected were architects of their own situation, that there was some identifiable group we could blame.

This is Scotland's problem and we need to take action to help make a difference for those who will feel the real cost tonight, tomorrow and every day, and set down a marker of the beginning of a change in attitude towards alcohol.

Focusing on what is right, and not who is right, might be a good start. We might also then find the strength to change the things we can change. Doing nothing is not an option.

John Carnochan

Karyn McCluskey

Scottish Violence Reduction Unit

West George Street

Glasgow

Just over a year ago I stopped doing supply teaching. I was too old. Not only that, but the apparently increasing number of pupils coming into class clearly hungover was alarming and dispiriting. Occasionally one was very much still under the influence.I was facing what was increasingly a lost generation.

The Scottish Government's proposals to limit the use of alcohol seemed challenging and potentially highly effective. That they have been defeated by the very worst kind of political chicanery is utterly devastating. What is the future of our country now?

Alan Clayton

Letters Way

Strachur, Argyll