Competition is important. As the report points out, many price increases have occurred in the sheltered, less trade-intensive areas of the economy. It has been a source of frustration to successive Ministers for Finance that while for many years there was no increase in the excise duty on alcohol, it did not prevent an increase in its price. When a modest excise imposition was made in one or two out of every four or five years, it was used as an opportunity to ratchet up the price considerably more. The point that the rise in the price of drink is not even mainly due to the Government is entirely well taken.