Drink ads: it’s time to put the plug in

WHEN I was going to school we used to get questions such as: “Water from a tap is pouring into a sink at a rate of two pints per minute. It is draining out of the sink at a rate of 1.25 pints per minute. If the sink has a capacity of 20 pints, how long will it take to fill the sink?”

My first thought was if you wanted to fill the sink, why not put in the plug? Of course I realised this was a purely theoretical question. In real life nobody would be so dumb as to turn on the tap and leave the plug out. Oh, dear!

So the Government is going to invest several millions from the Dormant Accounts Fund in combating the alcohol problem to prevent people from excessive boozing while at the same time allowing booze companies to spend many more millions persuading people ‘booze till you drop.’