The budget

Beer duty cut by 1p :clap:
Beer duty escalator scrapped :clap:

A good move George :hat:

So what are the breweries going to blame price rises on now?

Call me cynical :hat:

So it turned out that signing the petition was worth while after all. :-)

A very sensible, cheap, morale booster. Well done George. :hat:

What more do you need to get small businesses going but less corporation tax and cheaper beer? :thumb:

yep, let's all go out and drink beer paid for with the money we don't have :thumb:

calumscott said:

What more do you need to get small businesses going but less corporation tax and cheaper beer?

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I had better start making money again for my 2015 corporation tax cut then :lol: :lol:

graysalchemy said:

calumscott said:

What more do you need to get small businesses going but less corporation tax and cheaper beer?

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I had better start making money again for my 2015 corporation tax cut then :lol: :lol:

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Fire up the printing press!!!

Oh... that's not what you meant... :lol:

does this mean its not worth me making my own beer ?
Will pub prices come down ?


:pray:


Not.

piddledribble said:

does this mean its not worth me making my own beer ?
Will pub prices come down ?

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No, even if you drunk 100 pints per week, you'd only save £52 per year after this reduction - I think you can save much more than that by making your own.

I think the best we can say is that at least it has not gone up again... there are likely to be pubs around the country that will be very grateful for that as well as for the scrapping of the duty escalator.

Now they (the politicians) just need to figure out how to stop supermarkets selling alcohol as loss leaders and the pubs might just stand a chance of remaining open :hmm:

eskimobob said:

and the pubs might just stand a chance of remaining open :hmm:

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and all the other businesses like my own which have relied heavily on the hospitality industry. I won't bring back the pub trade prior to smoking ban levels but a step in the right direction.

And yes Osbourne needs to grow a pair and stand up to the supermarkets, they have decimated so many industries and retail sectors its about time they were brought into line.

:thumb: :thumb:

too true mr G A.... the decline of the pub can be blamed on many things but cut price supermarket booze is certainly the biggest factor imo

scrapping the stupid ******* child of darling was no bad thing but the cut is tiny, it only works as 1p on the pint on 4.5% beers in the pub, the majority of beers sold are at the "sweet spot" of 3.6-4.2. the average saving will only work out to be 0.7p per pint, not really translatable as any saving. :nah:

what, has it reached its maximum? is it at the point where nobody can actually afford to drink any more? :lol:

I've said it before though.

My local pub is possibly the unfriendliest place I've been in for a long time.
I'm new to the village, my eyes are clearly not close enough together and we were made to feel very unwelcome.

In fact, we were made to feel like the landlady was doing us a favour by serving us a pint!

Shame really because it's around 200 yards away and it sells Doom Bar (which I'm fond of)

I won't be returning in a hurry.

The pubs in the local town are no-go areas at weekends unless you like throwing glasses at each other or having a boxing match. It's shocking that by Sunday morning there is so much crimson on the pavement, the council have to come out and clean it up, only for it to happen all over again.

IMHO, town centre pubs are now no-go areas. Binge drinking has taken on a new level. Those of you how know Colchester will know it's never been the friendliest of places, but it's where I spent my formative years (18-22). I never had the level of violence there, despite the military prison types.

The smoking ban has hurt the pub industry, but my wife doesn't smoke and I would always smoke outside in the summer (it's actually rather enjoyable). I don't think it's as big a deal as some make out.

Local yokel pubs have been killed by cheap supermarket alcohol but also the lack of ability to be able to do what we in the UK used to be the best in the world at. We have always been known in this country for our services industry and manufacturing. Now we've almost forgotten how to do both!

*Please don't take this as a political post. In all honesty it's got knack all to do with Politics.

RobWalker said:

what, has it reached its maximum? is it at the point where nobody can actually afford to drink any more? :lol:

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We're still cheaper than most of Western Europe (in fact all of Western Europe bar Spain I would have thought).
Bars in France are busy. Bars in Germany can be especially busy. Bars in Italy are busy.

I don't think it's the price of beer in pubs per se.

It was funny listening to Osborne - it was as though he took this section of his speech straight off the CAMRA website.

graysalchemy said:

And yes Osbourne needs to grow a pair and stand up to the supermarkets, they have decimated so many industries and retail sectors its about time they were brought into line.

:thumb: :thumb:

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But if he does then there will be uproar as the cost of living will increase. Its not the power of the supermarkets its the public desire for cheap.

If Tesco puts 2 brands of milk on sale one named fair price for farmers and one which is dirt cheap which one will people buy?

graysalchemy said:

And yes Osbourne needs to grow a pair and stand up to the supermarkets, they have decimated so many industries and retail sectors its about time they were brought into line

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Is there actually any more tax on pub pints than on supermarket booze?

Any help for the brewing and pub industry has to be good, however this has to be the worst bog off bargain ever, buy around 300 and get one free.

I'd just like to say up yours to the conservatives , nothing else .