-
Tax the beer why don’t you
5
January 29th, 2010CommentI hate the fact that Sarah has International Radio 1 on in each room of the house every morning, but I’ve got quite used to drowning it out. Today though, I couldn’t miss the news, in which the top story was about the new police powers to confiscate alcohol from under-age drinkers and bring in new laws to tackle persistent offenders. What grinded my gears though was the end of the piece, in which the enthusiastic news reader paraphrased the Conservative party’s comment on the news which I’ll re-paraphrase:
“These measures don’t go enough, if we get in we’ll raise taxes on alcopops and high strength beers.”
High strength beers? How are you classifying that? Beers that are over 2 or 3 units? Beers over 10% Anything stronger than a traditional dark mild? No mention of the simple fact that there are tons of other alcoholic drinks that can get you shit-faced a lot quicker and a lot more cheaply than even a head cracking barley wine.
Why does beer get the bad press when it comes to under age drinking? Something tells me I’m not going to see a bunch of 15 year olds (or perhaps 11 is it?!) swilling a bottle of imperial stout on a park bench. Nope, it’ll be a pocket-able bottle of methylated spirit and a few cheap cans from the corner shop. Taxing ‘high strength beer’ will have about as much chance of stopping under-age drinking as Manchester United do of winning the FA Cup this year.
Tags: alcohol, binge drinking, government, tories, under age drinking
3 responses to “Tax the beer why don’t you” 
-
I watched the same report on breakfast telly this morning and my heart sank…again!
It’s just more Neo-Pro bullshit from a political party trying to win the public’s votes before the general election. And I have to say I am very disappointed in the bbc too for such unqualified/unjustified/daily-mail-esque reporting. (Quote)[Reply]
FletchtheMonkey Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 1:55 pmToo many online sources simply copy and paste the press release rather than look any further. It’s the need to be the first to report it I reckon, at the loss of quality journalism. More on that on my digital media blog when I get a chance to write it (Quote)
[Reply]
-
The Tories have said that the higher tax will apply to beers and ciders above about 5.5% ABV, but they will exempt traditional small-scale craft producers. Sounds like a policy made up on the hoof without engaging the brain.
And drinks of that strength play no role whatsoever in fuelling alcohol-related disorder in town centres. (Quote)
[Reply]
FletchtheMonkey Reply:
February 1st, 2010 at 1:53 pmI’d like to know the details of how they plan to implement that. Votes on their mind not results perhaps?! (Quote)
[Reply]
Leave a reply
The author
Name: Mark
Web Site: http://twitter.com/fletchthemonkey
Bio: Mark is better known as @fletchthemonkey and started writing about beer in 2009. Mark is editor of Real Ale Reviews and blogs at beeralewhatever.co.uk. When not content with spending all day on the internet working for a digital marketing agency, Mark waxes lyrical at digitalmediamonkey.co.uk and types up match reports for Leeds Guide magazine.
Donate to the East Africa Crisis
M&S Wine Club
Katie January 29th, 2010 at 09:21