The issue of alcohol has never been far from British politics. Initially, governments needed to control its sale for public order reasons and because it was a major source of revenue. Then in Victorian times a powerful temperance movement arose which sought to prohibit or severely curb the ''Demon Drink." This in turn aroused the hostility of the "Trade" and the issue became one of fierce electoral politics. After 1890 drink was interpreted more as a social reform question and then in the First World War, after a major moral panic, far-reaching measures of direct state control were imposed in...