We are all drinking more – and government fear-mongering won’t stop us

We got through house arrest during the past year by drinking more. A lot more – there’s been a 20 per cent increase in the sales of booze, with beer up 31 per cent, spirits up 26 per cent and wine up by a fifth. Now, the World Health Organisation says that this increase in consumption is responsible for one in seven cancer cases in the UK and one in four globally. Even moderate drinking – an extra glass of wine a day above the recommended limit of one – can increase the risk of breast cancer by 6 per cent, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

Public Health England (PHE) confirms the detrimental effects of drink on our health, and say it is responsible for a 20 per cent increase in alcohol-related deaths since last year, with mental and behavioural problems soaring by 11 per cent. PHE says that from March 2020 to the same time this year, there was a 59 per cent rise in people admitting they were drinking more, and at “higher-risk levels”.

This rise in physical and mental health issues related to booze isn’t reflected in rapidly rising hospital admissions, because people were too scared to seek help at a time when Covid seemed out of control. Liver disease is now the second cause of death among people of working age, and the evidence indicates this will continue.

Even before Covid, doctors warned of the dangers of exceeding the government guidelines. During the pandemic, many of us decided an extra glass of wine at six o’clock was the lesser of two evils. If we were forced to stay at home, wear a mask in public, wash our hands every five minutes and sanitise everything in sight, what was so bad about sipping a soothing glass of malbec in front of the telly?

Medics say that as restrictions eased and we could start to socialise, many of us have continued to imbibe at the higher level, regardless of the damage it is doing to our long-term health. At the same time, drinking is routinely regarded as a key part of British culture, with the prime minister and the hospitality trade highlighting how eating and drinking with friends is not only good for our mental health, but vital to the economy. Never mind saving the NHS, we must eat and drink to save jobs and keep pubs and restaurants open. With or without Covid passports, many of us did exactly that as soon as we could and the sunny weather this week will see pubs full of happy customers.

I’m afraid that all the gloomy statistics from the WHO and PHE will not stop me drinking a glass of wine every evening, and sometimes (if I am eating a meal with friends) a couple more. I am not an alcoholic – I live with someone who has battled to overcome addiction over the past two decades, so I am well versed in what dependency looks like.

Most British women (in particular) are pretty fed up with being told all the things they can’t do for fear of getting breast cancer. For years, we were denied HRT because of fears there was a link to increased risk of breast cancer. Same for the contraceptive pill. In the end, women must decide how to live their lives in a positive way they benefit from the most – and that might include drinking a bit more than gloomy Vallance, Whitty and co specify.

Thanks to the NHS we can have mammograms, bowel cancer screenings and smear tests and we’ve been brainwashed to check ourselves religiously for suspicious lumps. In spite of these preventative measures, I have lost friends and family to lung and brain cancer. People who smoked and others who never did. People who ate plenty of fibre and some who were vegans, others who regularly ate cheap takeaways. Cancer strikes regardless, it seems to me.

Now, bombarded by press releases from all the cancer charities, hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about “catching” cancer. I read every single new story about what to eat to avoid it, how to live a healthy life. Advice cascades in from all sides.

Yes, cancer is the second largest cause of death in the UK after heart disease. As a result of the NHS prioritising Covid cases the waiting list for treatment is longer than ever. But the number of breast cancer deaths is relatively small, just 7 per cent of all deaths from cancer, with lung cancer the largest at one in five.

The job of putting fear into women’s everyday lives has been so well done by medics, there’s no need to embellish it by telling us that another glass of wine a day might lead to a few thousand cases of throat cancer.

There will always be a minority of folk (some of whom have other addiction issues) who will be unable to limit consumption to sensible levels. The last 12 months brought isolation, loneliness, fear and anxiety to record levels, and with it a dependency on booze to blur the edges of daily life. Clearly, the health of binge drinkers and those who drink to excess daily will be affected. These people need counselling and support, not tax hikes on spirits and minimum pricing, which will have no impact on their lifestyle choices because they are not generally concerned about the taste or the type of booze, just the anaesthetic effect.

The vast majority of us will go through periods of drinking slightly too much and then return to sensible levels gradually (that is what the latest statistics seem to reveal). But fear-mongering and touting cancer statistics isn’t going to drive us away from the bottle altogether.

Over the last year, the continual barrage of gloom and doom from the medical establishment has produced a sense of weariness and frustration among the public. We’ve been patronised, lectured, and treated like naughty children throughout the pandemic.

Telling us to give up booze is doomed to failure.