Supermarkets are being urged to curb cheap alcoholic drink promotions.

Supermarkets where drink is sold like water - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Pressure has been mounting for restrictions on supermarkets which sell discount alcohol.

Plans have already been announced to curb cheap drink promotions in Scotland and experts have called for promotions to be outlawed across Britain to reduce the number of alcohol-related deaths.

Prof Ian Gilmore, the president of the Royal College of Physicians and a liver specialist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, said: "I think it is important to understand that alcohol is not an ordinary commodity.''

There was a clear link between price and the amount of alcohol consumed, he said. He welcomed the Scottish plans and said "they should be introduced here"."

"Britain's drinking culture:

- 8.2 million problem drinkers
- 13 times the risk of liver disease through excessive drinking
- 3,000 people a year killed or seriously injured in alcohol-related road crashes
- 4,160 deaths in England and Wales from liver disease last year
- £20bn cost to the economy of alcohol misuse
- 1 million employed in bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
- £217m spent annually on alcohol treatment
- £250m spent annually on advertising alcohol
- 63,000 people receiving treatment for drink-related disorders.
- 47p, the price of a bottle of super-market lager
- 75p, price of a bottle of super-market water
- £10bn, the total of duty and VAT receipts collected on alcohol"