Oh Darling. We told you to take it easy on the booze and look what you have gone and done this time. You’ve made a fool of yourself and in front of so many people too.
In his first Budget Chancellor Alistair Darling raised duties on alcohol significantly. Duty on beer will rise by 3% while taxes on wine will rise by 14 pence per bottle and spirits rise by 55 pence per bottle. Alcohol taxes will stay at 2% above inflation for the next four years.
It wasn't much of a surprise. The rise was widely expected since the weekend but not on such a significant scale. Darling has fallen for the perception that Britain has a very serious problem with alcohol and the only way we can solve it is by giving more money to the Treasury.
Today's news leaves hospitality in a predicament. Pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels are the safest and most heavily regulated places in which to consume alcohol. The industry has worked awfully hard to sort out its own house when it comes to under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour fuelled by alcohol, and while it is by no means perfect, it is certainly a safer place to be around drunk people - as opposed to a street corner with teenagers drinking alcopops bought in a supermarket.
The sad thing is this rise could change absolutely nothing but the price of a pint, the one thing the pub industry cannot afford at this moment in time.
Customers are feeling the pinch of the credit crunch in their pockets (you would have thought that as the man who is responsible for failed and now nationalised bank Northern Rock that Darling would remember that) and as a result are spending less of their hard earned cash in the pub.
Now operators are faced with passing on the rising prices to their customers: nothing like enticing back punters with more expensive goods.
Meanwhile the main competition in retailing alcohol comes from Britain’s supermarkets and you can bet your bottom dollar that the purchasing power of Tesco and co will be able to absorb tax rises in a way that the on-trade cannot. Either way Darling still makes his money as Britain boozes.
Never mind Chancellor, the pub trade will only have to mop up the mess of customers turning up on their doorsteps already drunk on booze from supermarkets and take the can for it. And they will be spending less money in pubs and bars too because of the prohibitive prices.
The pub trade has made great strides in transforming itself into a food led business offering the huge swathes of the public the chance to eat, drink and be merry in some superbly run establishments. As a result of that process times have been tough: the smoking ban has hurt but we will all be better for it.
Today’s rise is two steps back after one step forward. Its enough to turn anyone to drink, if they can afford one.
