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Cameron speaks to the
crowds at the Sunlight Centre
A future Conservative government would act to
stop supermarket chains from heavily discounting alcohol, David
Cameron says.
The opposition leader made the
statement while he was touring one of Medway's most
successful community projects, the Sunlight Centre in
Gillingham, visiting Radio Sunlight and speaking to young people
with disabilities about their advocacy work.
Mr Cameron said: "The Sunlight
Centre brings together so many of the organisations that bind us
together. It’s a community centre, which isn’t a weakness, it’s a
strength."
The Tory leader took the
opportunity to talk to an audience made up of councillors,
community leaders and police officers about his plans to fix
"broken Britain."
Mr Cameron was tackled about the issue of
rowdy behaviour caused by late-night drinkers by prospective
parliamentary candidate for Medway Mark Reckless.
Mr Reckless said he wanted the Conservatives
to return licensing powers to magistrates from councils and
highlighted frequent problems in Rochester High Street.
Mr Cameron said: "I do not think we should
turn the clock back but I do think we need to change the licensing
law. It has not been the success people thought it would.
"Part of this is about responsibility and
making sure that the police can intervene. But we would be wrong if
we did not recognise that there is a problem around supermarket
pricing and availability.
"All the evidence suggests that we have got to
deal with the deep discounting of alcohol by the supermarkets."
He added: "The Government won’t do it but we
will."
But he ruled out ending 24-hour licensing that
was brought in by Labour, saying: "We do not want to go back to the
pubs shutting at 11pm…that is not a good idea. Flexibility is right
and of course we want to have a more continental drinking culture
but the law has gone wrong and we need to put it right."
