Alcohol Alert - September 2024

Alcohol Alert Podcast

False equivalence and ‘empty rhetoric’ 🎵 podcast feature 🎵

The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) was established in 1983 by the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance, UKTA, previously the United Kingdom Alliance. The UKTA changed its name to the Alliance House Foundation (AHF) in 2003, from which IAS receives most of its funding. IAS has always been transparent about its background and funding. There are several other alcohol control organisations that also have historical links to temperance groups.

Some representatives of the alcohol industry point to these temperance links as a means of discrediting IAS and like-minded organisations, often alongside accusations of being ‘puritanical’. For instance, in early August this year, the Chief Executive of the industry body The Portman Group stated that a call from IAS and leading alcohol control experts for the government to exclude the alcohol industry from developing health policy was a:

“narrow-minded suggestion put forward by an organisation funded by the temperance movement, and it completely fails to take into account the longstanding, tangible work of initiatives funded by the alcohol industry in tackling alcohol harms, encouraging moderation and enforcing responsible marketing.”

Implicit in the mentioning of ‘temperance’ is the assumption that those with links to such movements have a conflict-of-interest and therefore should not be listened to, and that temperance was and is a wholly negative approach.

In this month’s podcast we spoke to Dr James Kneale, Associate Professor in Geography at University College London, about the history of temperance. We discussed:

* The many manifestations of different temperance groups and movements

* Why temperance movements emerged in the 19th Century

* How they provided alternative public spaces to drinking establishments

* The links they often had with working class social movements, including football clubs

* The UKA and its links with IAS

* And the links between Sporty Spice and temperance

Commenting on the Portman Group highlighting IAS’s temperance links, Dr Kneale stated that:

“I do think it’s a lazy word in that kind of context and someone has deliberately weaponised it. I don’t know whether people that read it would have taken it as anything other than the empty rhetoric of a lobbying group. The use of the word temperance is intellectually lazy. But what were [the Portman Group] saying, that they were trying to minimise harm, they were trying to get people to drink responsibly? That’s a temperance argument.

“They are thinking that the IAS is a prohibition/teetotal movement, I don’t think it is. I think the Alliance wasn’t entirely that itself. And you are not the Alliance. It’s been a long time since 1853."

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit instalcstud.substack.com