Less Tax on Beer under Labour
In last night’s debate on the Finance Bill John Redwood MP produced a lot of hot air on behalf of the Tories in support of a Lib Dem motion to postpone any rises in alcohol duty until an assessment of the impact on industry had been completed. He even had the bare faced cheek to suggest that the latest increases could be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” for the pub trade.
John Spellar MP has obtained figures from the House of Commons Library which show that a lower percentage of the cost of a pint of beer bought in a pub goes on tax now than it did during the Thatcherite years harked back to by John Redwood and the Conservative Party.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 9:30 pm
25 Comments:
Looks like a blatant attempt by Mr. Spellar to cloud the issue (if not the beer) with facts.
Our opponents' principal stocks in trade are anecdotes, yarns and innuendos...
12:01 pm, May 14, 2009
Luke, John Spellar is to be congratulated on his research.
Now lets have the true facts why the cost of a pint is so high ?
GW
7:14 pm, May 14, 2009
Please note Comrades
No2EU – Yes to Democracy rally, London, June 1st
As you know, RMT is supporting No2EU – Yes to Democracy – a new political platform created to defend public services and workers’ rights against European Union’s privatisers’ charter, the anti-union judgements of the European Court of Justice and the imposition of an undemocratic European super-state.
As a part of the campaign I will be among the speakers at a No2EU – Yes to Democracy rally at Friends House in London on Monday June 1, along with Public and Commercial Services Union president Janice Godrich, the leading employment lawyer John Hendy QC and Coventry Councillor Dave Nellist.
Full details of the London rally are below, and I very much hope that you will be able to join us there.
7:23 pm, May 14, 2009
For the full programme of No2EU – Yes to Democracy public meetings to be held across England, Scotland and Wales during the European election campaign please visit www.no2eu.com, where you will also find full details of the platform’s policies, campaign materials and contact information.
No2EU – Yes to Democracy is fielding a full slate of candidates across England, Scotland and Wales, and its election broadcast is scheduled to be aired at 10:30pm on Wednesday May 27.
With the ‘mainstream’ political parties all locked-in to the EU’s discredited policies of privatisation and corporate greed, No2EU – Yes to Democracy stands as a progressive voice that puts people before profits and stands against the racism and fascism of the BNP.
7:24 pm, May 14, 2009
Getting back to beer prices is over £3 really worth a pint of beer?
Pubs are so expensive now, that the working classes are priced out of them-the bar staff are paid around the min wage and sometimes lower, so where does all this money go as the Landlords keep pleading poverty?
A working class person can only afford to buy beer from a Supermarket and now CAMERA says supermarket beer is far too cheap and causing pubs to close down!!
7:29 pm, May 14, 2009
I love a pint and yes you are right in terms of % then under the last government a greater % was tax. However, rising cost of rents in city centres has meant that the cost of beer in a pub has soared. Not to mention a wrath of legistlation....new licencing laws etc etc....which has also added to the cost of a pint.
So the cost of drinking is up but the tax has not kept up with the rising cost of beer.
So your point is a little short of the full truth.
I would much prefer people to drink in a pub in good company that to sit at home drinking in front of the box. We are creating a nation of closet tele drunks.
9:14 pm, May 14, 2009
A little publicised initiative of Gordon Brown, as chancellor, was to give a tax break to micro-breweries. Part of the reason for the increase in small breweries in the UK.
11:56 pm, May 14, 2009
I thought a Select Committee was discussing (this week) the proposal to set a minimum price for a unit of alcohol; to help tackle alcohol abuse.
Thanks to an increase in councillor wages (more snouts in the little trough?) you won't, I hope, have any problem buying your usual down at The Fox, et al.
Get well soon, we miss your ugly mug!
4:06 am, May 15, 2009
We're doomed! Doomed! We're all doomed.
8:50 am, May 15, 2009
Rich
another reason for pub closures!
The excessive housing costs we have and made worse by the boom, which Gordon Brown basked in and called it growth, as the Chancellor from 1997, leaves very little disposable income available to pay for such luxuries as the pub. Now working class people have little choice but to take cans back home.
Alistair Darling is trying to revive housing inflation as a false way of moving the economy the same tedious way all the Tory Chancellors went!
Housing costs must come down by 76% from the peak! This would do this country long term good and start reviving the economy if housing costs went to affordable levels for every one!
11:59 am, May 15, 2009
More Taxation is not always a bad thing if its utilised correctly!
During the pre 1979 days we were taxed more, but had better services and dental treatment was cheaper and better-prescriptions were 20p.Housing costs were lower, so even in a highly taxed society you can be more financially better off than that of a lower taxed one!
3:29 pm, May 15, 2009
Mark - how quickly do you think house prices should fall by 76% in order to do "long-term good"?
3:53 pm, May 15, 2009
Rise beer in price further.
The higher the alcohol in the drink the higher the tax should be. That way people would be encouraged to drink less alcoholic drinks.
5:23 pm, May 15, 2009
Luke will you be disclosing all your expenses to public scrutiny??
7:35 pm, May 15, 2009
They already are public. "Expenses" = nil, I've never claimed any, though my partner has once or twice claimed chilcare costs for meetings. "Allowance" = set out here: http://mginternet.hackney.gov.uk/Published/C00000112/M00000408/AI00003272/$Membersallowances.docA.ps.pdf
i.e.£9820.75 this coming year
8:17 pm, May 15, 2009
So, folks, a world exclusive. Luke is not taking his Band One allowance of £2,195.10 for this coming year = he is giving up his post as Party Whip. Remember, you read it here first!
So who is running the book on who his successor will be?
5:32 am, May 16, 2009
Chris MacShane is already the new whip.
7:58 am, May 16, 2009
Mark, the problem is current regime has no choice but to prop up the current housing market....as they have nothing else to fall back on. This is our economy....boom and bust.
Going back to pubs...well this government has virtually killed them off. I have never known so many locals going bust.
A mixture of very greedy breweries, such as Coors (One of Blairs golden companies) and a raft of anti business legislation by this government.
As for UKIP getting more votes in Europe than Labour.....I doubt it will get this bad. Yes the two main parties are going to get hit but not to that extreme. The more UKIP members we have the better as it will give the British people a choice when it comes to Europe.
Europe is undemocratic and is nothing more than another way of promoting an environment for globalisation.....facist state.
10:26 am, May 16, 2009
Chris MacShane!?! Another bespectabled ginger-top kid working in "communication". A Clone? Sounds like we've got Akehurst-Lite for a Whip.
1:02 pm, May 16, 2009
The EU is way of protecting us from globalisation by ensuring we are not at the mercy of major superpowers like Russia, the USA, and India and China in the future. Look at divided Africa.
The EU protects us from fascism and tyranny by having an alliance of democratic nations.
8:57 pm, May 16, 2009
Dirty Euro.....I wish that was true. Why is it then that no votes are being ignored and countries such as Ireland are being forced to ratify...despite democratic no vote.
Europe sounded great....but we are finding out the hard truths.
12:38 am, May 17, 2009
Where are votes being ignored. The treaty was rejected so it did not happen. The treaty is put to a vote again if Ireland rejects it it will not happen. How is that being ignored.
Dividing Europe only plays in the hands of extremists and the enemies of democracy.
As for breaking up the EU how does that help anyone? By stopping people crossing borders, stopping business doing trade with other nations, allowing big companies to play each nation off against eachother lowering the rights of workers and people, because there is no social chapter.
10:13 am, May 17, 2009
How is cameron claiming to be the shining white knight in this. In the telegraph he receives almost the full second home allowance by submitting claims for their mortgages alone. And that he got wysteria off his house. Now he starts telling his shadow cabinet to pay the expenses back. It must be tough telling himself off. He would have been like Robert De Niro in Taxi. Are you talking to me, well there is no nobody else in here. While the PM is so frugal he refused his pay increase and only charged for half the cost of a cleaner by sharing the cleaner with someone else beat that tories. Typical frugal socialist scots getting it in hte can, while English tories get away with worse.
10:18 am, May 17, 2009
I have a good joke.
I heard Andrew Mackay resigned to spend more time trying to find his wife.
After all looking at the expenses, his first home is her second home, and her first home is his second home.
Nice to know Cameron has such upstanding men in his team.
10:33 am, May 17, 2009
Chris McShane my god it's Luke Mark II just a bit more hair and not as fat
10:22 pm, May 17, 2009
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