Prohibition

====United Kingdom====
Although the sale or consumption of commercial alcohol has never been prohibited by law in the United Kingdom, various groups in the UK have campaigned for the prohibition of alcohol; including the [[Society of Friends]] (Quakers), [[Methodist Church of Great Britain|The Methodist Church]] and other [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|non-conformists]], as well as temperance movements such as [[Hope UK|Band of Hope]] and [[Chartism|temperance Chartist]] movements of the nineteenth century.

Formed in 1853 and inspired by the [[Maine law]] in the United States, the [[United Kingdom Alliance]] aimed at promoting a similar law prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the UK. This hard-line group of prohibitionists was opposed by other temperance organisations who preferred moral persuasion to a legal ban. This division in the ranks limited the effectiveness of the temperance movement as a whole. The impotence of legislation in this field was demonstrated when the [[Sale of Beer Act 1854]], which restricted Sunday opening hours, had to be repealed, following widespread rioting. In 1859, a prototype prohibition bill was overwhelmingly defeated in the House of Commons.<ref>Nick Brownlee (2002) ''This is Alcohol'': 99–100</ref>

On 22 March 1917, during the [[First World War]] at a crowded meeting in the [[Queen's Hall]] in London (chaired by [[Alfred Booth]]) many influential people including [[Agnes Weston]] spoke, or letters from them were read out, against alcohol consumption, calling for prohibition; General Sir [[Reginald Hart]] wrote to the meeting that "Every experienced officer knew that practically all unhappiness and crime in the Army is due to drink". At the meeting, [[Lord Channing]] said that it was a pity that the whole [[Cabinet (government)|Cabinet]] did not follow the example of [[King George V]] and [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]] when in 1914 those two spoke calling for complete prohibition for the duration of the war.<ref>''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', Friday 23 March 1917, reprinted in ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', Thursday 23 March 2017, p. 30</ref>

[[Edwin Scrymgeour]] served as Member of Parliament for Dundee between 15 November 1922 and 8 October 1931. He remains the only person to have ever been elected to the House of Commons on a prohibitionist ticket. In 1922, he defeated incumbent [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] member [[Winston Churchill]]; winning the seat for the 
[[Scottish Prohibition Party]], which he had founded in 1901, and for which he had stood for election successfully as a Dundee [[Burgh Council]]lor in 1905 and unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate between 1908 and 1922.