Booze & Cheers

‘REVENGE, as Clare Short knows, may be a dish best served cold, but what do you serve with it? A crisp Chablis? A woody Chardonnay? Or a fruity Burgundy?

This man turned to drink when the going got tough

Who better to ask than a woman with experience of life in the higher echelons of her profession, a woman who is used to dealing with stress, a woman not unlike, er, Clare Short.

Now, we have no idea whether Ms Short likes a tipple or not, but we do know – courtesy of the Times – that plenty of women in her position do.

In fact, women in high-powered positions are more likely to have a drinking problem than men in similar positions and than women in more junior roles.

A study of 8,000 civil servants found that female drinking habits changed dramatically depending on professional status, with senior executives three times as likely to have an alcohol problem as clerical workers.

There is a democracy, however, among male drinkers with 11% of men found to have a drinking problem, irrespective of status.

Of course, the study of civil servants may have been skewed by the fact that they have daily to deal with the likes of Clare Short.

But if they really want to unwind, they could do worse than visit the Right Honourable lady’s home city of Birmingham, which has, says the Independent, been bestowed with “the unenviable accolade of the UK capital for cheap drugs”.

Why this accolade is unenviable we are at a loss to explain. Obviously, we at Anorak do not condone illegal drug use of any sort, but if you are going to smoke a spliff, pop a pill or snort a line, then why pay over the odds for it?

Birmingham may be the cheapest city in the UK, but the good news for drug users is that prices are dropping across the country and across the narcotic spectrum.

“The average price for a gram of heroin is now around £49, compared with £74 six years ago, and cocaine is being sold for £45, compared with £71 in 1997,” says the Indy.

“Ecstasy now costs between £1 and £5 for a tablet, compared with £25 less than two decades ago.”

This need not be bad news for the Government either – legalising ecstasy and adding it to the retail price index would guarantee not only a happy population but low inflation to boot.

Anorak for Chancellor! Hooray!’

Posted: 1st, March 2004 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink