Politicians and booze - how drunk or sober are MPs?

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The Mirror has revealed (or so it says) just how sloshed our MPs are:

Politicians and workers in the House of Commons guzzled £1.4m of booze last year, shock figures have revealed.

The newspaper goes on to list, will growing shrillness, just how many bottles of champagne, beer, cider and  wine were sold. And we are shocked!

But should we be so shocked (other than by the subsidy)?

There are 650 MPs and let's assume that the rest of the people employed at the House of Commons amount to a further 650 folk. I'm ignoring drinks bought for guests or visitors (although I'm sure a fair bit of the booze was in the form of such entertaining by MPs). That's a nice, tidy 1300 people who spent that shocking amount of £1.4m.

The House of Commons sits for about 150 days each year (again we can argue whether this is too many or too few) so on each day £9,300 is spent on booze there. This amounts to £7.15 per person - essentially a round of drinks. Even if only MPs are drinking that's only £15 each - is this really so shocking?

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Those boozy MPs - Some maths for the Daily Mail

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Terrible!

Taxpayer-subsidised bars for MPs sold more than 65,000 alcoholic drinks in the last year - despite a promised crackdown on the Commons 'booze culture'.

There are 650 MPs. That's 100 drinks each across the year - and this assumes that only MPs drink in the House of Commons bars (which isn't true) - which is less than two drinks a week. Even the most enthusiastic New Puritan is more or less OK with two drinks a week.

Of course, the Commons issues passes to lots of people - researchers, secretaries and so forth - and there are hundred of people who work in the House. All before we account for the guests of MPs. While subsidising the bars is wrong, the idea that there is some kind of Commons 'booze culture' is arrant nonsense.

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