I am grateful to Hadley Freeman for highlighting the paradoxical attitude of the British towards alcohol (Alcoholism is tragic. So why can't Brits stop sniggering?, 4 June).
A failure to identify behaviours symptomatic with alcoholism delays treatment and increases the danger alcoholics pose to themselves and to others.
By yourself, a bottle of whisky late at night?" Paxman was widely criticised for this interview, and he even took the decidedly un-Paxmanlike step of apologising, saying he might have asked "one question too many" about alcohol, as though the problem were his broaching the subject rather than alcoholism itself.
And then, with two minutes to go, Guru-Murthy plunges headfirst into drugs, alcoholism and daddy issues.
In a short statement issued on Friday, the family said the postmortem examination had confirmed that the death of Kennedy, aged 55, at home in Caol, near Fort William, on Monday "was a consequence of his battle with alcoholism".
Charles's death was caused by a major haemorrhage and the report makes clear this was a consequence of his battle with alcoholism".
"I also hope that politicians of all parties develop a better understanding of alcoholism, take it more seriously and devise policies to treat it as a disease on a par with the other major diseases.
In that time he has wrestled with alcoholism.
With 3.7 million Australians presently at risk, the time is now to be realistic that a broader context of alcoholism exists.
The sad thing is that he really could have been the man to destigmatise the taboo of alcoholism.
Related: Charles Kennedy death caused by alcoholism, family says The programme then cut to a vintage clip of Kennedy joking about how the Liberal Democrats were causing a shift in politics and admitting he would have been "very happy" to come second in an election.
