Twenty seven billion Pounds a year.
Not a figure one might think would be spent on Childrens Aid, or on traffic safety.. but it represents the money spent on dealing with alcohol overconsumption. It represents the costs for Police, for ambulances, for hospital treatments, for damage to private and public buildings.. The alcohol society is an exceedingly expensive lifestyle indeed.
Yet still, the government is rolling along with the alcohol producers, in attempts to cut down on public consumption.. raising prices is not on the table though, because tat issue would have to go through the European parliamentary system, and would take years. Politicians are instead concentrating on the alcohol producers and the outlets where alcohol is sold... and this approach is nothing more than a chimera, designed to give the impression 'something' is being done.
There is a paper to be signed in the Commons today, generally aimed at confining drinking, but senior Health Department officials are planning to boycott the vote, saying it simply doesn't go far enough.
All this, over a drug which historically caused personal and property damage, while cannabis is still 'the great gateway drug', a supposition which has been disproven many many times.
We're a perverse society, steeped in propaganda 70 or 80 years old, and for some reason, more than reluctant to change our ways..
Shame, that..

Libya.
The UN is almost in agreement in declaring a no fly zone over the country, as pro-Mohammar forces are taking back rebel territories. If Benghazi falls to Mohammar's forces, that's it for the revolution, and all this while the UN sat about twiddling it's thumbs, endlessly debating the 'proper' response.In the meantime, Mohammar is flying mercenaries in en masse, and using weaponry far superior to those untrained troops making up the rebel forces.. It would seem at the moment, that the uprising may well be crushed..
Recall the failure of the international community in intervention in Bosnia, through diplomatic dithering..
Meanwhile, a thousand Egyptian troops have hit the ground in Bahrain, to help settle the problem there. They're there at the request of the government, not to open fire on protestors, but to contain a situation which could eventually lead to open elections.. Some in the government have taken the stand that the appearance of any foreign troops, would be tantamount to a declaration of war, and this in itself is going to unsettle UN diplomats, and further delay any actions taken in the rest of the Middle East..
Not to be accused of Madisonian Manifest Destiny, it would appear that we in the West, because of our addiction to Middle Eastern oil, should be considering these recent developments as matters of National Security, and should be acted upon as such.

Meanwhile, in Japan, it appears the fuel rods of one of their reactors in Fukashima are now fully exposed, which officials are now saying 'could lead to a possible meltdown'..
The situation in that country is deteriorating by the minute.. and yet, the Japanese themselves are holding themselves within their code of conduct. No looting, no riots, just, where possible, life goes on as usual.
Admirable, to say the very least..