Legal Challenges?

Today I attended, along with many other like minded people, a meeting in Leamington Spa, seeking and fulfilling the ratification of the six demands of the Harrogate Agenda.

I will post tomorrow my thoughts in detail on the meeting, in the meantime Autonomous Mind has a great post here on his thoughts as part of a live blog.

As an aside this in a small way is the problem we face, from the Spectator:

I quote in full (my emphasis):

On Monday, the government is set to announce its alcohol strategy. It is expected that this will call for a minimum unit price of 40p. As Graham Wilson reports in The Sun, this idea is a personal favourite of the Prime Minister but opposed by several influential members of the Cabinet.

These ministers worry that it’ll be seen as the rich man taking away the poor man’s pleasure. Given the media reaction to the pasty tax and the caravan tax, this is a legitimate concern. They also fear that a successful legal challenge to it, which is a distinct possibility, would do further damage to the government’s reputation for competence.

Cameron himself is attracted to the idea because he thinks it’ll help cut down on binge drinking and by stopping supermarkets from doing cheap offers will help pubs compete. But the problem is it is a blunt instrument. It’ll hit responsible drinkers as hard as irresponsible ones.

A successful legal challenge? Now why would that be a problem? Where would the origins of that legality lie? And why doesn't the Spectator mention it? It's a subject I as a simple lowly blogger have highlighted why on many occasions. Legal difficulties was what it was called nearly 2 years ago.

The Spectator is part of the problem, a part of the establishment and most certainly not on the side of the people. It is not fit for purpose.