The Big Issue magazine threw its weight this week behind the Thames Reach campaign calling on the government to increase tax on super-strength drinks and for the drinks industry to act responsibly.
A front page lead story exposed how these dangerous super-strength lagers and ciders have become the biggest killers of homeless people in the UK.
Concerns are growing that the coalition government is set to abandon its policy of increasing tax on super-strength drinks despite pledges made at the Conservative Party Conference last autumn.
A spokesperson for Thames Reach noted the danger of drinks such as White Ace cider which is ‘cheaper than lemonade’, and congratulated the drinks company Heineken for withdrawing White Lightening cider from sale.
A drinks company spokesperson noted the ‘growing public concern about the links between white cider and irresponsible alcohol misuse’.
Thames Reach Chief Executive Jeremy Swain wrote a powerful three page feature for the magazine which looked at the early death of a super-strength drinker and asks why such deadly drinks continue to be so cheap and readily available.
Meanwhile, the Observer newspaper featured the campaign as one of its lead stories on Sunday 29 August.
You can read the Observer article online now. A comment piece is also available to download below.
