Does the recession have the potential to help the UK government?

As we all know, binge drinking has become a significant problem for the government to tackle in the UK and the governement might take action. The government's top medical adviser has drawn up plans for a minimum price for alcohol which would double the cost of some drinks in England. Under the proposal from Sir Liam Donaldson, it has been reported that no drinks could be sold for less than 50 pence per unit of alcohol they contain. It would mean most bottles of wine could not be sold for less than £4.50, whilst a can of beer would cost £1. A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government "had not ruled out" taking action on cheap alcohol. Sir Liam's proposal is aimed at tackling alcohol misuse and is set out in his annual report on the nation's health.

In today's economic climate, people have less disposable income, money which is available for them to spend on whatever they like. This means that a possible consequence of raising alcohol prises could be that people don't have enough money to buy those few extra pints, meaning less people getting drunk. Therefore, perhaps binge drinking might become a smaller problem in the UK, only time will tell.

The binge drinking problem in the UK has led to campaigns from the NHS (National Health Service) to prevent it, such as the well-known and publicised "Alcohol, know your limits".

BMW, VW and Saab are suffering!

BMW's net profits tumbled nearly 90% to 330m euros ($423m; £306m) last year, as the global economy weakened and demand for cars decreased. Earnings were hit by 2.4bn euros of exceptional costs linked to bad debts, personnel costs and provisions to cover risks on used car markets. Separately, the European Investment Bank made a 400m euros loan to BMW as part of a wider industry package.

The EIB approved 3bn euros in loans to the European auto industry. The money will go to German, Italian, French and Swedish carmakers. Most of it will be aimed at improving fuel efficiency and cutting carbon emissions. The bank said that it expected to grant a further 2.8bn euros of loans to the industry in April and May. This would take its total lending to the car industry to 6.3bn euros since December. BMW is not the only carmaker to struggle however as VW reported on Thursday that sales fell 15% in January and February.

And troubled carmaker Saab said that it planned to cut 750 jobs in Sweden. Shares in BMW fell 8% to 21.04 euros after the news of its profit fall. BMW did not provide an outlook for the year ahead. However, Norbert Reithofer, BMW's chief executive said in a statement: "The BMW Group has been able to make improvements at an operating level in the midst of extremely difficult economic times." He added: "Cost structures have been further optimised and thanks to rigorous management of free cash flow, the BMW group is in a very solid financial position."

Volkswagen said that 2009 sales and profits would not match the record levels of 2008. "The group's sales revenue in 2009 will be below that of the previous year due to the declining unit sales situation," VW said in a statement. "In such a situation, it will not be possible to reach the high level of earnings achieved in previous years," it added. Separately Saab, whose US parent General Motors wants to sell it, announced job cuts. "We announced this morning we would see to make 750 redundancies in our production facility in Trollhaettan," Saab spokesman Joe Oliver told the AFP news agency. "This is a necessary action to increase liquidity and the top priority for Saab at the moment is to reorganise efficiently in order to attract new investors."