Exactly. Something worth considering when we`re past Christmas, and we have these chocolates, and kids are still looting them, is moving the menu and telling them there are some liquor chocolates. It would probably take them away from everyone else. So we are debating whether people are allowed to do something they do not want to do and whether it should be allowed in the interest of deregulation. According to a probably unreliable source on the Internet, 450 grams of chocolate alcohol was equivalent to a bottle of wine. That meant that my four boxes of chocolates were about a bottle and a half. Would I get drunk or have diabetes? Emaciated or seriously ill white girl? Usually not. There is a minimum content rule (at least where I live) that chocolates have not passed. I would like to congratulate my dear friend, the Member for Cardiff, West (Mr.
G. Thomas), who is single and has difficulty assessing the age of young girls. It`s not that difficult for people with more experience. If the trader has 658 doubts about this, then there is a good old saying: “When in doubt, no.” As I said, I support the new clause, but I hope that the minister will go a step further and hold the merchant responsible for determining the age of the young people who buy these chocolates. “It is illegal to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 18” I decided to answer my own question by buying as many alcohol chocolates as I could afford and sticking them to my face. It turned out that I could only afford four boxes (80 chocolates in total) and that if the miners want to do the same, they have to do their job for them: I had to visit five supermarkets in south London to get my hands on them. Then I went to Halfords to get a pocket breathalyzer so I could legally measure how screwed I was. As I spread out the four boxes in front of me, the task ahead seemed enormous. There were too many chocolates to fit in a five-foot-three human girl. Nevertheless, I started with a breathalyzer test to reach my resting level.
It was 00 o`clock in the morning. I was ready to go. That last point got me thinking. How many of them should actually eat, say, your teenage cousin to get a buzz? There is (rather implausible) evidence that people have gotten drunk on chocolates before. But in reality, it seems highly unlikely that anyone would be physically able to eat enough to feel alcohol without first getting sick. I couldn`t help but think of the time when Preston from Never Mind the Buzzcocks ate tons of alcoholic chocolates on Celebrity Big Brother that year and vomited four times. But I banished him and his chocolate vomit from my thoughts and sat down to begin my mission. We believe the clause will have minimal impact on the business and an even smaller impact on the number of liquor chocolates consumed. Nevertheless, it is not in our interest to stand in the way of the small number of children who want to eat alcoholic chocolate when they do. On this basis, we will support this small clause.
I remember that one of my honourable friends who represents one of the Leeds constituencies – I do not know which one – I believe it was my colleague, the Member for Leeds, South East (Miss Bacon), who raised the issue of alcohol in chocolates. Interestingly, the topic has already been discussed. In 1961, it was actually a Conservative government that criminalized the introduction of liqueur chocolates for the first time. When the 2003 Act was passed, Malcolm Moss, then a Conservative MP for North East Cambridgeshire, tabled an amendment to raise the age at which a person can eat liquor chocolate from 16 to 18. That was the Conservatives` view at the time – not that we should release five-year-olds so they can enjoy a good whiskey, but that we should prevent 17-year-olds who were allowed to join the military or ride a moped from having chocolate liquor. The more things change, the more they stay the same, but that is where the Conservatives were at the time. Similar rules apply to lottery tickets, spray paints, party poppers and liquor chocolates, where the age limit is 16. Computer videos and games may have age limits of 12, 15 or 18. In any case, the sale of any of these products to a person under the specified age constitutes a criminal offence. When I searched the internet for advice, I read somewhere that the sugar and fat in chocolates could reduce the effects of alcohol, making me feel less drunk. So I thought it was time to consume them in a different way.
They argue that banning alcohol makes it harder for mom-and-pop stores to do business, insisting that stores will enjoy next Christmas — when sales of alcoholic chocolate treats are at their highest — without negatively impacting young people. When it comes to children under five, just to be clear, alcohol chocolates are not alcohol. The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 prohibits the supply or sale of alcohol to all children under the age of five, but under the Act children under the age of five may purchase alcoholic chocolates when visiting a shop. At the end of the day, there is no point in stoking fear. What is important is awareness and education, not whether a child has access to alcoholic or non-alcoholic chocolates. If a child really wants to try alcohol, they will steal a beer from their parents and won`t make a long trip to Tesco to buy very weak alcoholic chocolates. I struggled to move forward, but maybe that`s because I`m much smaller than them. However, as soon as I woke up, I was gone. Forty-five alcohol chocolates had not affected my ability to cycle in circles.
This means that we ask a minor volunteer to try to purchase an age-restricted product. They can be secretly observed by an official. Learn more about volunteering to monitor age-restricted products. If a merchant undergoes a test purchase, we will inform them of the result in writing at that time or thereafter. We can prosecute retailers who make illegal sales or, in cooperation with the police, impose firm fines or warnings. Any merchant who is willing to sell these chocolates should have the responsibility not to serve children under a certain age. It may be doubtful that you can tell if a boy or girl is 15 or 16, but the trader should be blamed for finding out. If there is a risk that these chocolates will be enough to make a child taste like alcohol – that`s the point – then there should be no way that this child will get them and taste them that way. California, 20 years old. I`ve seen chocolates filled with brandy that I want to try, but I didn`t want to go through the embarrassing situation of being carded and rejected. Children are allowed to buy liquor chocolates and alcoholic sweets after a change in the law.
As far as I know, the provision applies to persons under the age of 16, which would presumably include children under the age of five. I hope I will sort this out, although I can imagine that the prospect of children under five buying chocolate from alcohol is quite far away. I would also like to tell the committee that one of the first questions I asked about this clause was whether it is possible for a child under the age of 16 to get drunk on chocolate liquors. I was assured that the child would be sick long before he could get drunk because he would have to consume a lot of it. Subsection (1) (a) of the new clause refers to the fact that there is no intoxicating alcohol in a ratio of more than one-fiftieth of a gallon of liquor (calculated as proof spirit) per pound of confectionery. I would like to know how the minister comes to that relationship, because it seems a bit of an exaggeration to some of us.
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