Four Types of Killjoy: #2 Anti-alcohol

The temperance lobby: they’re back

In this series of posts, the IEA’s Dr Christopher Snowdon explains the background and beliefs of the anti-smoking, anti-alcohol, anti-obesity and anti-gambling movements in the UK.

This is Part 2, on alcohol. Part 3 on food is available next week, or to paid subscribers immediately here.

Read Part 1 on tobacco here.

For most of the twentieth century, alcohol researchers in Britain and much of Europe tended to think that ‘the drinking of the general population and the problematic drinkers was inherently different’. Alcohol policy focused on alcoholism and drunkenness, with alcoholism seen as a disease, and drunkenness seen principally as a public order issue. This implied targeted interventions for a minority of troubled or troublesome individuals. In contrast to the Nordic countries, which had experienced or flirted with prohibition in the 1920s, the UK favoured education and treatment, albeit with alcohol taxes and licensing laws that were restrictive by the standards of most European countries.