SIR - The country has a drinking problem, so what's new?

Well it's worse than ever, and here are the three main reasons for it.

First, a couple of decades or so ago, the breweries spotted, and targeted, a potentially lucrative almost untouched group, females.

At the time women would rarely go to a pub alone and, in fact, were not much interested.

However, a massive TV advertising campaign changed all that, and we know the result of that.

Second, Margaret Thatcher rewarded her big business chums by scrapping the sensible laws that had confined the sale of alcohol to pubs and off-licences during certain hours, handing the massive profits instead to supermarkets and co-operatives, who now boast about the billions they have, and tell us its from sheer hard graft.

Third, the extended opening hours, which of course are profitable for the same types. Big business doesn't like interfering little off-licences, or the rest of us when you consider what its booze, junk food, etc has done to so many.

Eric Firth, Wellington Street, Wilsden