I see that there has been a small group of Labour MPs led by Ian Davison, Glasgow South Wests vociferous representative, suggesting that rather than grub up vines,  Join Burr in reducing the wine lake! distillation of the wine, and more EU subsidies to support prices and all this completely ridiculous waste, a free case of wine should be given to every Old Aged Pensioner. What an excellent idea, apart from the fact that no one will take it seriously and do it. But, do you remember the days of good ordinary Vin de Table in litre bottles marked with stars around the necks to show they were returnable, wine available for a couple of francs a litre, plus the deposit on the bottle? It was available in every shop, and was the staple drink, we used to buy it for picnics. Drinkable, but not a lot more, and better in some regions than others. Cost of production is about 0.25 Euros a litre, probably a selling price of 2 Euros would give enough to everybody, producer, distributor and retailer, certainly in France where duty is negligible, and get people drinking the stuff. Here in the UK the minimum price would be £4 a litre with our duty and VAT, and at that price, it starts to be pretty unattractive, to the extent that people might even worry about what it tastes like! Perhaps those MPs should be lobbying for no duty and VAT on booze for OAPs, that sounds like a good vote catcher, and whilst youngsters are binge drinking their way to oblivion, why shouldn’t the OAPs have some fun as well- besides it might well help the circulation, urinary tracts, cholesterol, and the stress of surviving on their reduced value pension funds.
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