BLUEMOMENT

What a great idea!

536,340 plastic measuring cups are being freely distributed by the Scottish government to ensure that home boozers can check that they're pouring themselves proper measures.


Picture: The Scotsman

More at The Scotsman website.

536,340 of the cups at a total cost of £302,157, which works out at 56p
must have bought them from a chandlery.

They'd be better used as sample cups to analyse the results of drinking then we could really say that the govt was taking the pi$$

what a complete and utter waste of money. add in the costs of distribution, printing leaflets to tell you how to safely use them, a team to monitor the distribution and effectiveness of the initaitive and the total cost will be significantly more than 300K
No much wonder the country is broke

Shard wrote:536,340 plastic measuring cups are being freely distributed by the Scottish government to ensure that home boozers can check that they're pouring themselves proper measures.

So Scotsmen are officially so tight they will short serve themselves at home!

Look good for measuring the 0.25l of oil for my gearbox, mixing epoxy, washing paint brushes, holding screws and things. Where can I get them?

The cups will be delivered to your door in due course when the delivery people have completed the cup delivery training course, and the associated ethnic awareness course and H&S course.

Each delivery person will be preceded by a risk assessor to ensure delivery can be made safely and will be accompanied by a safety supervisor, a navigational efficiency assessor and an environmental impact assessor.

Between 3 to 50 weeks after delivery recipients will be interviewed by quality assurance assessors and alcoholic impact assessors. Recruiting has started for these people.

A parallel study on the financial impact on the retail drinks industry will be carried out as will a public safety project to assess the impact on drink related offending. This will have a specific sub-study looking at domestic violence.

Training courses for these roles will be starting as soon as their development is completed.

In fact the glasses cost 2p/1000

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Personally I think you have to give the Scottish government some credit. Having had their minimum pricing initiative - supported by senior figures in the police and NHS throughout Scotland - thrown out in a purely political piece of gamesmanship by their Holyrood opponents this represents a cheap and fairly non-controversial way of making small inroads to a major problem.

In Scotland, in 2007/8 there was a 400% increase in patients discharged from hospital with alcoholic liver disease (6,817) compared to 1996. Treatment for alcohol related problems in Scotland costs over £1m a day, and middle-aged wine drinkers (which is I would guess the major target market for the glasses) are increasingly contributing to the statistics. So this highly mockable but relatively small expenditure may prove to be very cost-effective.

TBH, I have changed my drink regime.

In weekdays, I now use a 125ml wine glass at home, no beer, and I keep a 50ml spirit measure to ensure i keep a tag on the whisky.
Although I do this effectively for my diet, I recognise it is a good thing all round.

I still go wild at weekends though.


I believe this would be better if they had spent proper money and made them a bit more substantial, like glass.

Gardenshed wrote:536,340 of the cups at a total cost of £302,157, which works out at 56p
must have bought them from a chandlery.

They'd be better used as sample cups to analyse the results of drinking then we could really say that the govt was taking the pi$$

what a complete and utter waste of money. add in the costs of distribution, printing leaflets to tell you how to safely use them, a team to monitor the distribution and effectiveness of the initaitive and the total cost will be significantly more than 300K
No much wonder the country is broke

You forgot the risk assessment and other Health and Safety issues --->

Oh yes, we in the south have been doing this for years:-

Pint glasses for beer,larger and cider
Half pint glasses for wines and spirits

FullCircle wrote:I believe this would be better if they had spent proper money and made them a bit more substantial, like glass.

Good things come in glass? eg ... erm ... whisky

They look awful big measures.

I enjoy a drink, but hate getting drunk. I just don't understand why people don't stop when they get a bit woozy. OK, it can get addictive, but lots of people seem to get some sort of benefit from a binge once or twice a week but aren't actually alcoholics (yet), it simply doesn't compute for me.

Do you get several glasses or just the one.

I wonder what the correct behaviour is - if you are visiting friends do you take your own measure or rely on borrowing the hosts?

If the host is serving drinks does he measure out all the drinks in one measure or have separate measures for whiskey, wine, advocat etc

Is it considered bad form to ask for a double?

I think there needs to be some work done on the changes in protocol this device could cause.

Olivepage wrote: I think there needs to be some work done on the changes in protocol this device could cause.

Up here good form is accepting what you are given and looking grateful. If the measure is undersized, , consume quickly and look quizzically intol your glass. If it is too large, count blessings, sip slowly and put hand over glass when the bottle is proffered for a refill. I suspect that these plastic devices will mostly be used when indulging in solitary pleasures.

A brillo pad and a felt tipped pen would soon sort that out.

My problem with wine is that I only drink at weekends. So, when I open a bottle, it's going in me, or down the sink. And I'm not a man who likes waste.

"I suspect that these plastic devices will mostly be used when indulging in solitary pleasures."

You may wish to reword this post - some of the more delicately nurtured may get the wrong idea