One in the eye for the anti-alcohol brigade

Mobile phones and social networks came into their own in Scotland over the bank holiday weekend when a mistake at Tesco had 3 x boxes of beer for £11 instead of £20.

BBC.

An error which slashed the price of beer and cider led to a stampede of customers at a number of Tesco supermarkets in Scotland.

A deal offering three boxes of various alcoholic drinks for £20 was going through the tills at three for £11.

Police were called to Tesco in Greenock after heavy congestion was reported in the car park as customers rushed to get the deal.

It is understood the offer was supposed to be "buy three boxes of beer and save £11".

Instead customers were able to purchase up to 45 small bottles of lager or 36 cans for £11. 

News of the error spread quickly from about 1900 BST, with many people posting messages on social networking sites.

One customer said the situation was "bedlam" as people phoned their friends and some went home to change clothing to come back and buy more beer. 

Rebecca Macdougall tweeted: "Was casually chatting to my dad about the beer situation at Tesco mention 3 crates for 11 quid and he sprints to the car."

 Now I'm sure this caused problems for Tesco, but it goes to show that the alcohol awareness people have a long way to go to try and make inroads on the UK drinking culture, which isn't even remotely like the continental pattern. People in the UK like to drink, it's an escape valve, if you keep cutting out the escape valves then something will explode. The Romans used bread and circuses, but the UK public's interest in the circus aspect will only go so far with Britain (hasn't) Got Talent and other shows of that ilk. Yes some people take it too far and get drunk and violent, but the law should be applied there on the violent, getting drunk shouldn't be seen as a crime (not even a health crime) frowned on if you wish, but not a crime. If the pressure to simply just make ends meet was lifted on the population, if people had more cash in their pockets instead of paying so much to the government and if a lot of the ridiculous petty restrictions on how we live our lives were lifted, you might see a change in the way we behave. Instead governments at home and in the EU keep piling on the pressure and making our lives an expensive misery that people will look to any means simply to escape and slowly but surely the government moves to cut off those avenues.
The end result will be revolt, as happened in Rome, as happens abroad as is happening in Greece and Spain.
The government runs by consensus, most people are happy enough so long as the bastards leave us alone, that's changed, now they're telling us how to live our lives, removing our freedoms and saying it's for our own good. They even use fake charities such as Alcohol Concern to do it for them.
People aren't stupid, though at the moment they'll just go where they can get cheap booze and ciggies. Sooner or later though someone in the government will try and stop that, then we'll change the way we are governed permanently and quite violently, we might not like the way we're governed after that, but at least we'll be able to eat drink and be merry without interference, the next government after the revolution will make damned sure of that.