Taxing issues

I have always been suspicious when a government announces that the solution to a problem, be it social, medical, ecological or whatever, is simply to raise tax levels. If this simple remedy is indeed a "cure-all", then why do we have any problems at all?

I was, therefore, surprised when Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of BMA Scotland, (Letters, 24 April) not only endorsed this view with regard to the burden that problem drinking places on the health service, but also reduced it to a matter of simple arithmetic, telling us that "an increase of, for example, 40p, would prevent 26 deaths in year one, rising to 119 in year ten".

I believe that this is not just a matter of price but also involves the complicating factors of culture and physical and psychological addiction, which Dr Keighley neglects to mention.

The assertion that evidence points to the two factors that are important in solving this problem being the price and availability of alcohol is not borne out by the facts that many countries where alcohol is cheaper than in the UK do not have the problems that we do, and the experiment to reduce the (legal) availability of alcohol to zero in the US was a spectacular failure.

Tackling alcohol abuse must involve educating people and, hopefully, changing the culture of believing that the only way to enjoy a night out is to get hopelessly drunk. If Dr Keighley is saying that any step forward is a good step then I agree, but the solution to this problem is more complicated than simply raising prices.

WALTER J ALLAN

Colinton Mains Drive

Edinburgh