By Institute of Alcohol Studies
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The podcast currently has 102 episodes available.
On this month's podcast we spoke to Dr Aveek Bhattacharya about the decisions taken on alcohol duty in Labour's first Budget in 14 years. We discussed the positives and negatives of the decisions, whether Labour could and should have been more radical, how duty should be structured to cover the cost of alcohol harm, and whether public health groups should have welcomed the decision.
False equivalence and ‘empty rhetoric’ 🎵 podcast feature 🎵
The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) was established in 1983 by the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance, UKTA, previously the United Kingdom Alliance. The UKTA changed its name to the Alliance House Foundation (AHF) in 2003, from which IAS receives most of its funding. IAS has always been transparent about its background and funding. There are several other alcohol control organisations that also have historical links to temperance groups.
Some representatives of the alcohol industry point to these temperance links as a means of discrediting IAS and like-minded organisations, often alongside accusations of being ‘puritanical’. For instance, in early August this year, the Chief Executive of the industry body The Portman Group stated that a call from IAS and leading alcohol control experts for the government to exclude the alcohol industry from developing health policy was a:
“narrow-minded suggestion put forward by an organisation funded by the temperance movement, and it completely fails to take into account the longstanding, tangible work of initiatives funded by the alcohol industry in tackling alcohol harms, encouraging moderation and enforcing responsible marketing.”
Implicit in the mentioning of ‘temperance’ is the assumption that those with links to such movements have a conflict-of-interest and therefore should not be listened to, and that temperance was and is a wholly negative approach.
In this month’s podcast we spoke to Dr James Kneale, Associate Professor in Geography at University College London, about the history of temperance. We discussed:
* The many manifestations of different temperance groups and movements
* Why temperance movements emerged in the 19th Century
* How they provided alternative public spaces to drinking establishments
* The links they often had with working class social movements, including football clubs
* The UKA and its links with IAS
* And the links between Sporty Spice and temperance
Commenting on the Portman Group highlighting IAS’s temperance links, Dr Kneale stated that:
“I do think it’s a lazy word in that kind of context and someone has deliberately weaponised it. I don’t know whether people that read it would have taken it as anything other than the empty rhetoric of a lobbying group. The use of the word temperance is intellectually lazy. But what were [the Portman Group] saying, that they were trying to minimise harm, they were trying to get people to drink responsibly? That’s a temperance argument.
“They are thinking that the IAS is a prohibition/teetotal movement, I don’t think it is. I think the Alliance wasn’t entirely that itself. And you are not the Alliance. It’s been a long time since 1853."
In this month's podcast we spoke to Alfie Slade, Government Affairs Lead at the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), about a new report called Killer Tactics. The report was developed by the OHA alongside the Alcohol Health Alliance and Action on Smoking and Health, and calls for MPs to reject corporate hospitality from these unhealthy product industries.
The report shares the common tactics used by these three industries in order to protect industry profits at the expense of public health.
On this month's podcast we spoke to Lisa Erlandsen, the Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Alcohol Health Alliance.
We discussed reasons to be cautiously optimistic with the new government regarding public health, what could prevent progress from being made, why the alcohol industry needs to be removed from health policy-making, and what the AHA will be focusing its attention on in the coming months.
In our podcast this month we spoke to liver doctor Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, who is also chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance and current president of the BMA, as well as Suzanne Wood, Head of Population Health at the BMA. We discussed the BMA's recent consensus statement calling on the government to reduce the drink driving limit, what else would need to be introduced for the policy to reduce harm, and Sir Ian's words of wisdom to the next BMA president.
On this month's podcast we spoke to IAS's Chief Executive, Dr Katherine Severi, about our new research that found that alcohol harm costs society £27.4 billion a year. We discussed the cost to various elements of society, why it is important to understand the cost, why reducing harm and supporting the hospitality industry are not mutually exclusive, and what an incoming government should focus on to reduce alcohol harm and its cost.
In this month's podcast we spoke to Dr Katherine Severi about the rise in alcohol deaths, and Dr Nason Maani, about his latest research paper that looked at correspondence between Public Health England (PHE), The Portman Group, and Drinkaware, in the run up to and launching of the Drink Free Days campaign, which ran in 2018-2019.
The paper, which was featured in Private Eye, highlights the collegial relationship between senior figures at PHE, The Portman Group, and Drinkaware, and also show how The Portman Group attempted to paint members of PHE’s alcohol advisory group as having a conflict of interest.
In this month’s podcast we spoke to John Holmes, Professor of Alcohol Policy at the University of Sheffield, about no and low alcohol products. We discussed the project the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group is running on the topic, why these products are gaining attention, who consumes them, the concerns among public health groups, and what the market for such products will look like in the coming years.
In February's podcast we spoke to Dr James Morris, Research Fellow at London South Bank University, about how the model of ‘alcoholism’ evolved and led to beliefs about alcohol problems being heavily focused on the severe end of the spectrum.
Dr Morris discusses how Alcoholics Anonymous, despite helping a great many people in their recovery, reinforces this model and leads to people failing to recognise their own issues with alcohol. Discussing why this model can cause harm, Dr Morris stated:
“I think the main way it prevents progress is through ‘othering’, essentially the process of classifying alcohol problems as belonging to an ‘other’. The alcoholic stereotype is drawn on heavily for that. We see lots of heavy drinking groups point to the ‘alcoholic other’ to distance their own drinking and protect their own drinking identify."
In our first podcast of 2024, we spoke to Nicola Merrin, Alcohol Focus Scotland's (AFS) Policy & Research Manager, about the Scottish Government's consideration of reintroducing a Public Health Supplement (or levy).
We discussed what the previous levy raised and why it was implemented, AFS's support for a new levy, and why it's so important to introduce one now, when alcohol deaths are at record highs.
Listen to the end to hear from Dr Alastair Macgilchrist, who explains next steps for minimum unit pricing in Scotland.
The podcast currently has 102 episodes available.
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