The Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) has called for increased taxation on alcohol, arguing increasing tax by 10% would cut alcohol related deaths by between 10 and 30 per cent. An assumption fiercely challanged by the drinks industry. (see news page )
This comes out within weeks of the Royal College of Physicians admitting that the figures on which the "safe number of units" was based were "plucked out of the air".
No sane person advocates irresponsible drinking, but the threat of increased taxation together with high rents and business rates and the almost certain hike in beer production costs due to the poor harvests of malt and hops will see many more pubs driven to the brink. They need our support more than ever.
Full Pints Key Facts
During the 1980’s The Government (a Conservative Government furthermore, not known for unnecessary interventions) was so concerned about the domination of the licensed trade by what were known as the Big Five that it referred the situation to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The resulting legislation known as the “Beer Orders” act was introduced by Lord Young in 1987 and it revolutionised the British pub scene giving beer drinkers a choice that many could have only dreamed of.
The bill however had one fatal flaw. Instead of putting restrictions on any business that owned more than 2,000 pubs, it only put that restriction on any brewery that owned 2,000 pubs.
Over the years the major brewers either sold their pubs or breweries, or in the case of some, both.
In 2002 Government of the day deemed that the Beer Orders act was outdated and scrapped it.
But why should we be concerned? We’ve never had it so good. Dozens of new breweries are opening up every year. Even the tied and managed houses have more beers than ever and real ale is available in the vast majority of pubs across the country.
The answer to this question is quite simple. We are in great danger of loosing this choice. Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns own far more pubs than the big brewers of the 70’s. Smaller pub chains and the quickly expanding mega-regionals like Green King, Fullers and Wolverhampton and Dudley are extremely tempting targets for multinational finance houses like the Goldman Sachs backed R20 group.
What happens my friends is, it’s back to the bad old days of Whitbread Tankard(*) and only Whitbread Tankard on virtually every Island bar.
Please don’t tell me that it won’t happen. Let’s just make sure it doesn't.
* Substitute any mass produced, over promoted pathetic excuse for beer.
Have your timbers been shivered by a boa constrictor?
Drinkers in several Island pubs have noticed that they needed to put on their mittens in order to pick up their pints. The problem in a significant number of cases has been the dreaded python. This piece of ingenious apparatus puts all the beer lines in together in one bundle (or "Python). The principle is that all the lines surround one cooling line with the lagers nearest to it on the inside and the real ales on the outside. This, in theory, should ensure nice cold lager and an appropriately cooled pint of real ale. Sadly , in practice, what comes out of the spout in many cases is all at the same teeth chattering temperature. Happily CAMRA has been at hand to identify the problems and in at least 2 pubs the whole shooting match has been ripped out and a more sensible system installed. If you've been "pythoned" let us know.
The thought occurs that as London and more precisely England are to host the 2012 Olympics the opening ceremony usually reflects the national culture for the world to see.
We all know we live in a multicultural society, we know this because all the do gooders and “hug a tree” mob tell us so. They also arrange lots of training and courses in Caribbean Carnival costumes, Samba drumming, African Drumming and we all put sweets in the office kitchen at Diwali.
This entire multicultural ism seems to leave out our own national culture our own traditions of dance and song.
We have a rich and varied national culture in our folk dancing and song. A lot of the songs and dances were formed in times of hardship by the working classes. Men down the pits, Agricultural workers on the land, Fisherman at sea catching shoals of herring and the women who prepared them and of course not forgetting the cotton mills up North all very harsh working environments where songs and dancing were born. We have sword dancing, clog dancing, Molly dancing North West Morris dancing, Carnival Morris dancing to name a few, we also have a vast range of ancient and modern folk songs. These are living traditions that are evolving all the time it is alive and kicking.
Are we proud of them? No of course not, we put Morris Dancing on Fosters adverts as a joke. On the Continent they are proud of their heritage, the Brittany Ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo has a Frieze of Traditional Breton Dancers in the main lounge. Where would you see a frieze of Morris Dancers on a British Ferry???
So all this rambling is coming to the conclusion that we must be proud of our heritage and show it off well. At Rugby internationals the New Zealanders have their Haka
We should have a Morris side out there dancing before the match. It would not be a problem for there to be 200 Morris dancers on the pitch.
We want at the opening of the 2012 Olympics Morris dancing and our national traditions of England to be there. Sure there are other parts of the Multicultural society that should be there but we want our own national heritage to be recognised as something worthwhile and not just a joke for beer ads.
Do not forget Morris dancers dance regularly outside pubs to raise money for charity.
They search out good pubs with real ale to power the dancing.
So spread the word Morris Dancing at the opening of the 2012 Olympics!