CHURCH halls and community centres are to offer emergency alcohol supplies to those unable to afford it themselves.
Charities have seen a sharp rise in the number of people who are forced to go without drink altogether in order to meet basic living costs.
Eleanor Shaw, chair of the charity Poverty Concern, said The measure of a compassionate society is that every one of its adult citizens should have access to beer, wine or spirits.
More and more, however, we are seeing heart-rending cases of people forced to endure the misery of enforced sobriety, thanks to government cutbacks.
This isnt just the unemployed. Were talking about workers on low incomes, or pensioners whove paid into the system all their lives and need to get shitfaced every weekend just the same as you or I.
Anything will do – a can of Kestrel, that unwanted bottle of leftover Christmas sherry, even the dregs of Auntie Lindseys sloe gin.
People have been so generous. They understand the desperation of drinking a cup of tea and realising thats the strongest thing thatll pass your lips that day.
Conservative sources claimed that there are no significant alcohol shortages in the UK, and that the Chancellor has delivered on his promise to make the country more drunk than ever.
But Stephen Malley of Birmingham said: The Government is ignorant of the reality of life in Britain today.
Which is exactly where I want to be, and why the white cider supplied by the drink banks is so vital.
