I had the delights of attending an alcohol visioning day this week, in which one of our cities was attempting to renew its "vision" for alcohol for the next five. Needless to say, I don't do "days" and slipped off before the end, but my hopes for a quiet day sitting at the back of the room were dashed when I was press-ganged into leading one of the workshops. Alcohol is interesting because it represents a dichotomy within Government (and indeed within society as a whole). The Department of Health is fiercely opposed to alcohol, partly because of the cost to the NHS of treating alcohol-related illness, but also because of the impact it has on life span. Similar the Home Office doesn't like alcohol because of alcohol-related violent crime and anti-social behaviour. Ranged against them though is the Treasury, which rather likes alcohol because of all the tax revenue it generates. The Treasury is, of course, primus inter pares and so always wins the day.

Their raison d'être of the Department of Health is to help people lead as long and as healthy lives as possible, and so they promote anti-smoking, anti-drinking and healthy eating campaigns. But there is an elephant in the room that it refuses to acknowledge; it may not actually be a good thing for people to live longer. In a very short space of time there will be more retired people living in this country than workers and as that imbalance grows there will be an ever increasing pension bill and ever decreasing tax revenue. The Treasury knows this, and if they had their way we would all be smoking and drinking ourselves into early graves - ideally shortly after we reach retirement age.