The UK should admit it has an alcohol problem if off-licences are deemed ‘essential’

Wine and beer are flying off the shelves, but perhaps we need to look at our drinking habits, writes Janet Street-Porter

A number of supermarket shelves have been picked clean of wine (Getty)

How has confinement impacted on our drinking habits? Even before the order to stay at home, hoarders and panic purchasing stripped the wine shelves in my local supermarkets – the only bottles remaining were those costing more than £10.

Last weekend – just before lockdown – wine and beer continued to be the supermarket staple we cannot do without, along with tinned tomatoes and toilet rolls. Now the list of “essential businesses” (which includes pet shops, hardware stores, pharmacies and petrol stations) has been extended to include off-licences, allegedly to cope with demand. Luckily the list included my local garden centre, where I bought plants and compost – probably because it also sells some food. The “essential” list does seem a bit arbitrary.

Breweries are lobbying for the right to deliver beer, claiming that they have lost trade to supermarkets. I’m not sure why off-licences have been granted this dispensation – in a YouGov poll this week, most people say they are drinking the same amount as before the crisis, without only 17 per cent saying they are consuming more.