The Government is cracking down on British drinking habits with the first new alcohol guidance for 20 years recommending men drink no more than seven pints a week – the same as is recommended for women.
Chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies said there is no such thing as ‘safe’ drinking levels, as alcohol is linked to higher risk of developing cancer, reports the Guardian.
But the Telegraph said health chiefs were coming ‘under attack’ for the ‘nanny state’ alcohol guidance, which proposed a ‘binge-drinking’ limit of three pints in one night.
Head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs Christopher Snowdon said: ’The change to the guidelines will turn hundreds of thousands of people into “hazardous drinkers” over night thereby reviving the moral panic about drinking in Britain and opening the door to yet more nanny state interventions.’
The Independent also splashes on a story about the Department of Health, as an FOI request showed health secretary had apparently signed off letters saying the planned junior doctors’ strike would put people at risk in the case of a ‘Paris-style’ terror attack.
In another email, NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh ’was told by a DH official that the risk of a “major incident” would be “pressed quite hard in the media once the strike is formally announced” and he was advised that “the more hard-edged you can be on this, the better”’, reported the paper.
