IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written in The Spectator discussing new research which suggests banning 250ml wine servings in pubs and bars.

Christopher wrote:

“In what they boast is the first study of its kind conducted in a real-world setting, they persuaded 21 pubs and bars to remove their largest wine serving (which was either 250 ml or 175 ml) from the menu and see what happened. As far as Marteau is concerned, the results were sensational. Although nine of the pubs awkwardly sold more wine after the change, there was an overall decline in daily wine sales of 7.6 per cent.

“Is that a lot? Not really. It is a reduction of five units of alcohol per day. That would be significant if it was per person, but it is per pub.

“By her own account, Marteau’s research shows that people enjoy drinking out of large wine glasses and they get a better deal from ordering a large serving. To anyone interested in consumer wellbeing, this means that a large glass of wine is a jolly good thing.

“This, in a nutshell, is what we are up against. There is an irreconcilable conflict between the interests of ‘public health’ and the interests of the public.”

Read Christopher’s full piece here.