The good old Labour party (PvdA) has come up with the best possible way of dealing with the Dutch under-age drinking problem – make it a criminal offence for a juvenile to be found with alcohol in his or her possession.

And what an amazing deterrent that is going to be. The same approach works so wonderfully for smoking cannabis, riding a moped without a helmet, shoplifting and all those other things teenagers get up to on occasions.
Surely, the PvdA is not so far removed from reality that it thinks making something a criminal offence will stop a teenager doing it?
The pushers, sorry drink retailers, are delighted with the suggestion. They have been calling for the criminalisation of teenage drinking for years.
But they are not so happy at the PvdA’s plan to take the liquor license away from companies found to have sold booze to the under-16s. Only when they have broken the law three times, of course. Far too much red tape, the booze sellers say. Poor dears.
Surveys show that supermarkets are pretty lax in checking the age of youngsters buying drink. So it might be pretty obvious to actually start with them. Let’s have a few supermarket bosses given a nice little criminal record for supplying alcohol to juveniles instead. Now that might actually work as a deterrent.