Vortex

The latest budget is a killer blow to that fine old British institution the public house. Up and down the land drinkers will be mightily peeved off at the government's latest tax rises, when it could have been avoided. How? Well lets face it we all know that there is a problem with underage and binge drinking in the UK, with many town centres no go areas because of drunken young people etc. But where do they get most of their alcohol. primarily from cheap supermarkets or small off licences with an eye more for profit than their committment to the community.

In addition much of the violence associated with these phenomenons relates to night clubs rather than the old fashioned pub, the sort of, to me at any rate, horrendous light flashing, thumping repetitive music establishments that caters for the semi comatose between the ages of 18 and 30.

Therefore, I propose that a policy of levying alcohol tax rises selectively on the aforementioned night clubs, off licences and supermarkets, while those pubs that cater for responsible drinking and act as hubs of the local community should be exempt. The police together with the local council could appoint a committee to make a decision on which category the said purveyors of alcohol fall into.

Save Our Pubs, and make out town centres civilised!

Kevin Adamson

The police should do thier job and arrest the drunks as they stumble or are carried out of the clubs/theme pubs.Another committee is the last thing we need.
Having said that the taxes on alchohol are too high but they will continue to rise until the wellie wearing left get thier own way.They have succeeded with stopping us having a smoke with not much more than a whimper and they will succeed with thier campain to stop us drinking. Do you not think the 24 hour drinking was not a plan by government to make our town centers no go areas,then suprise,suprise they come up with the big plan (make alchohol unafordable)
The only way I can see to save our Pubs is reduce the price of drinks and recind the no smoking ban.

Vortex

I certainly agree that the price of a pint in most pubs is way to high. Where I live its £2.50, although in Wetherspoons you can get a pint of Marstons Pedigree for £1.69.

I was always against 24 hour drinking and I am partially against the smoking ban. That is to say, I don't see why there can't be some smoking pubs, staffed by smokers, for smokers and being adults they all know the risks.

I loathe these theme pubs, my concern is for the traditional hostelry and real ale!

Millennium3

Yes, 24 hour drinking and the smoking ban are the two measures that have changed our culture more than anything - it also significantly reduces the extent to which males, in particular, interact - less chance of a revolution I suppose.

Aardvark

Vortex, in the first round of 'Vote For Me' I turned up in my morris kit and advocated duty free draught real ale drank at point of sale.

Real ale served in this country (actually beer as it is hopped) is almost exclusively made in this country and is largely made by the smaller and medium sized breweries using local materials, although a lot of hops are now imported.

People would not cross the English Channel to buy duty free foreign beer as all decent pubs would be duty free zones (reduction of carbon footprint). More jobs would be created in pubs, more jobs in local breweries and more jobs in those industries that support pubs.

As draught beer in pubs and clubs would be cheaper than staying at home or buying from the supermarkets then that is where people would buy.

The age for drinking beer in pubs should be reduced to 16 as it is in Germany, but spirits and alcopops should stay at 18. Drinking beer is nowhere near as bad as drinking spirits and responsible drinking in a pub, as opposed to swilling cans of lager behind the bike sheds, is the way to introduce young people to alcohol.

Supermarkets should not be allowed to sell alcohol.

The night clubs,that Vortex doesn't like,tend not to have proper cellars and couldn't store or serve draught real ale; everything they sell tends to be the sterilised carbonated nitro or keg beers. They would therefore be more expensive than hostelries.

With the massive increase in fuel prices (25% in the last 12 months) people will be less inclined to drive. Half the communities here in West Oxon have lost their pubs. The solution, IMHO, is to allow all former pubs converted to houses to be reopened as pubs without a planning application for change of use and conversion and at the discretion of the owner. Pubs don't have to open 7 days/nights per week.

This combination of policies would return the traditional locals to the small villages as they would become, once again, the centre of the community. Pensioners would once again be able to afford a couple of pints on 2 or 3 nights a week.

The big boys could serve their cr@p lager and alcopops to the disco and clubbing crowds with no interruption, but there should be stricter control of opening hours.

Smoking should be the discretion of the owners, but there should be higher taxes on tobacco (IMHO).

__________________
When in Woking do as the Wokes do.

"I do not wish to form my opinions by thoughtlessly quoting others; I wish others to support their opinions by sensibly quoting me." Paul Wesson (Aardvark) 13th April 2008

Besoeker

Given the range of prices from one pub to another, I don't think the 4p hike in the price of a pint is going to be a killer blow.
http://www.whatprice.co.uk/beer-prices.html
The 4p a pint is less than a 2% increase on the average pint.
And, given that pubs typically make a GM of around 70% some might just swallow the increase.
Or maybe not. It gives people a routine excuse to congregate in a pub and cry into their beer........

Phil Sheldon

If petrol was the same price per gallon,as beer would you a) stop at home or b) march on Parliament?

__________________
Those who would sacrifice Freedom
for Safety
deserve neither.

david H

It is because of cheap drinks from supermarkets. You get tanked up before you go clubbing. This is just an excuse to screw more moneyout of us for their own schemes. It isa another example of a political class rather than three different parties becaudse Cameron was calling for this a couple of weeks ago. Some people think that one of the main causes for our dissolute young is constantly being berated and put down by the elites.

__________________
"You think you are combatting prejudice but you are at war with nature". Edmund Burke.

http://www.buchanan.org/pa-98-1127.html

Millennium3

Would this policy be a net vote winner or net vote loser?

The Bear

There are steps that could and should be taken but of course especially under New Labour they never will.

One would be to only sell booze to be consumed off the premises at specialist off-licenses and not in shops selling anything, and I do mean ANYTHING else.

Then for the police to implement existing legislation. That step alone would do wonders. For one thing it would hit those who sell booze to under age kids, to people who buy or attempt to buy booze for under age kids, and for those who sell booze to those under the influence of booze already. The laws are there, they should be getting made use of with zero tolerance.

Also a new bit of law whereby any premises licensed for the sale of alcohol would have their licenses subject to the imposition of penalty points with automatic removal after a set number was reached in any time period much as the case with driving licenses.

Another would be to designate an area around licensed premises as alcohol sensitive zones with the police able to claw back policing costs as a result of alcohol motivated or alcohol aggravated criminal or anti-social activity that took place in such an area from the licensed premises in the designated area.

If I have a car accident and someone needs medical treatment my insurance must fork out. So people who need medical treatment should be made to pay the full costs even if, as we so often see, an ambulance is called and the injured refuse treatment, they should still be made to pay for the cost of the call out.

Ther5e is a great deal that could and should be done using existing legislation, further legislation to tighten up on bad behaviour is needed, and the question is why is nothing that has any real effect being done.

Maybe the luverly tax receipts from booze is blinding this awful government from doing what now needs to be done. Maybe the drunken louts that ruin our towns and cities is yet another stealth tax but this time by proxy.