Roger Scruton once said: "You could say that wine is probably as old as civilisation; I prefer to say that it is civilisation, and that the distinction between civilised and uncivilised countries is the distinction between the places where it is drunk and the places where it isn't".
It’s not often I begin a programme praising the French, but on what I’m about to say, our Gallic cousins have absolutely the right attitude.
Across the Channel, raising children with a watered down glass of wine over dinner is still commonplace.
However, such a culture that encourages maturation is absent on these islands.
Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks out on alcohol abuse
GB NEWS
Why do I mention this?
Well, the World Health Organisation has issued its latest report into child alcohol use and England has topped the charts.
Out of 44 countries examined, England came first with a third of 11-year-olds and more than half of 13-year-olds having tried alcohol.
But the World Health Organisation has pushed for countries to implement more measures to interfere in family life.
It is perhaps a little known fact that it is entirely legal in this country to give your children alcohol in the home if they are over the age of five.
Medical professionals have been trying to have this law changed or repealed for some time, mainly citing WHO studies that claim to debunk what is called the “French family myth” - the phenomenon to which I have already alluded.
'Drinking more than 28 units per week can lead to a sharper decline in thinking skills as people get older'PA IMAGESThis week, new ONS figures confirmed concerns that the increase in alcohol-linked deaths over the Covid period carried on into 2022.
But hidden in these figures is that alcohol per capita actually decreased in this period which suggests that moderate and occasional drinkers drank less over this period and it was heavy drinkers who drank more.
But this detail didn’t deter the health fanatics from calling for a minimum price for a unit of alcohol.
However, this has already been tried in Scotland and has basically had no effect. Scotland’s alcohol specific death rate is 56% higher than in England.
The health fanatics and “public health” lobby always insist on population-wide measures rather than targeted and focused policies that help those who need it.
It follows the very same principle of lockdown.
In October 2020, the Great Barrington Declaration was issued, calling for focused protection.
But the public health lobby ignored it, indeed besmirched many of the eminent scientists who signed it.
But of course, those scientists turned out to be right.
The real question is, who decides? Parents or the state?
Can mothers and fathers across the land who love their children be trusted to allow a sip of champagne on New Year’s Eve, or must the bossy hand of the state override them?
Being comfortable with alcohol in adulthood is a good and enjoyable thing, allowing children to grow into drinking sensibly is wise.
Banning things just leads to deceit and excess, and it has biblical sanction.
After all, Jesus Christ, our lord and saviour, turned water into wine, not orange juice into soy milk.