Chancellor No Darling Over Cider Tax

Just because neds abuse cheap cider does not mean hard working tax payers should be penilised because the police cant deal with the problem in the correct manner

Well, this one doesn't affect me because I don't drink, in fact I dont 'do' any hard drugs, I don't think it will have much impact on binge drinking either, once again when faced with a problem our leaders take the lazy/easy option of dealing with it, put the price up, instead of getting to grips with the issues and actually DOING something,
I saw on the BBC news that some papers are calling this budget "an attack on the middle classes" well, who would they prefer to be taxed eh? the poor? as the upper and middle classes get the most OUT of society,and consume the most why is it wrong to expect them to put the most BACK?

No doubt there will be some who complain that they might have to only have one foreign holiday this year or sell one of their cars or holiday cottage, and of course they will complain that they "work damned hard" for it blah blah etc, which of course implies that the lower paid manual workers don't deserve it because they DON'T work hard,
I don't know where some people get this idea that somehow the amount they earn reflects how "hard" they work, cause anyone who has worked in a heavy industrial job knows that's a load of bollox.

The government wants to cut binge drinking, so it puts up the tax on cider, that’s the theory anyway. The trouble with theories though is that the wheels tend to come off them the moment they come into contact with reality.

The real effect of putting up taxes on cider, or beer for than matter, will be that people will be even more inclined to buy drink on the basis of cost rather than quality; meaning the cheapest always wins.

Good news for the supermarkets, but another body blow for community pubs, the owners of which are already working flat out to get people in through the doors. Needless to say a local pub where the landlord (or lady) wants to entice the same customers in every week is more likely to foster responsible, and sociable, drinking than some soulless bar in Hanley people visit only after getting tanked up at home first.

As for the original problem nothing much will have changed, not least because encouraging moderation in drinking, or anything else, is not nearly as simple as putting up taxes.

Its not at all fair on the Wursels..lol. No. less of the sillyness.
There are thing will stop binge drinking. Stronger use of laws regarding the buying of alcohol. Supermarketts to stop promoteing alcohol at very cheep per-unit price, like thay had to do many years ago with fags. A countey wide ban on public drinking. Please note that I did not say that the govenment sould take at least 27.5p of every pound spent on Cider in tax, becouse it sure an't damed well right, never in a million bloody years. I don't drink it, never have and can't abide the stuff, bloody waste of good foodstuff if you ask me. Its not going to stop the idiots swilling it down them at the moment binge drinking, they'll just move onto the new cheepest gutrot.

It may come as little surprise to those with knowledge of me that my opening interjection on the hallowed scrolls of 'pitsnpots' arrives amidst the clutches of a debate on alcohol...

Be it ill or wisely judged, the budget announcement yesterday of a significant tax increase on cider should appear as no surprise. Alcohol and cigarettes are the modern-day (legal) scourge and are thus one of the prime battlefields of proposed social engineering. Addictive killers that they may be, any government with a desire to rid a society of the associated destitutions of the two maladies (passive smoking, domestic violence, chronic asthma, any number of internal diseases) does only have at its disposal a limited number of viable options to attempt to tackle the problems. Of course, absolute prohibition would be both far too costly and completely pointless (in the same vein that the endless 'war on drugs' is a fruitless pasttime). So, they are left with the options to educate (through schools, public information broadcasts etc), to frighten (ever-increasing graphic still and moving images of injury, disease and death), to leave people alone to carry on regardless (which is the easiest option, and which many people continue to do) and to attempt to curtail consumption via prohibitive tax increases.

The final option is often a win-win for governments with specific agendas. Firstly, because such seemingly drastic increases do work, with many people ultimately drinking and smoking less. Secondly, because consumption marches on whatever the weather - some consume as much as before, some less so, but the tax revenue continues to roll in.

Within the alcohol family cider is the easy option to target. Still very much a minority favourite in the UK (even after the increase in popularity influenced by the introduction of Magners, St Helier etc), a 10% tax hike on the stuff is unlikely to swing the result of any general election. Yes, it may have something of a negative effect on pubs. However, people will still go to pubs if the pub offers them what they are seeking in a pleasant night out or a restful mid-afternoon drink.

I am a great fan of public houses, but the world revolves ever onwards, and the death of many pubs merely symbolises the alteration of society. It is cheaper to stay in, to buy your alcohol at the supermarket and to consume it in the comfort of your own front room. We operate in an open-market, free-trade state, so to impose restrictions on the price levels at which supermarkets (private businesses after all) can sell goods is a highly dubious arena.

Ultimately, laws exist and ought to be enforced. No sales to under 18s. The confiscation of alcohol caught in the possession of a minor. No public alcohol consumption by anyone in designated alcohol restriction zones. And, please do correct me if I am wrong, but it is still illegal is it not for a person to be intoxicated in public, and for a licensee to serve an intoxicated customer? Perhaps the laws need strengthening. I personally see no reason why all public places, with the exception of street cafe zones attached to pubs and bars, should not be alcohol restricted.

So, yes, it shall hit me forcefully in the searing heat of another English summer when I walk into my local pub and am asked for £4.00 when ordering a pint of Weston's Old Rosie. I shall just have to ensure that I enjoy it more than I have ever done in the past.

Alan Watson Jervis, welcome to Pis 'n' Pots, your comments are well thought out and more then interesting, thank-you for posting. Yes, I belive the law on being intoxicated in public still stands. Although, I think some fools may have missunderstood the wording and think they have to be constantly intoxicated in public to be within the law. If you need pruff of this fact, try Longton at 2pm on a Saturday, or indeed most days of the week. As for the serveing of intoxicated customers, well, a trip to any one of Hanleys nightclubs/ late night watering holes will indeed show to anyone that this law an't worth the paper its wrighten on. It's a joke, a bloody disgrace, but as I say, the buggers will always find the money to get to much of the stuff, if they out price them on the Cider, they'll just find something cheeper.

I'm on the Weston's right now. The fact is, I've been working all week only to see my taxes go to bailing out Brown's cronies in the City of London and to authoritarian "laws" that are designed to stifle discontent at the fact that there aren't enoug real jobs in this country, thanks to the government's economic "policy" of "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich", "encourage the risk takers", "celebrate huge salaries" and so on, so I deserve a break.

If young lads had proper jobs to do there wouldn't be all this anti-social behaviour, they would go to work all week and then get drunk and shag at the weekend, and what's wrong with that? I used to do it and I'm no harm to anyone.

Drunken chavs are the symptom of the problem, if they didn't exist we'd still be in a state until the government admits it has been wrong all these years. But don't you dare slag me and my Westons off.

WWCW, they may indeed be well on the way to there 'usaul state' at 10.30am any day of the week. I didn't want to be overly nasty to them. I also think more laws sould be passed, enforced better and yes, I think tighter laws on selling the stuff should be brought in, taxing to the hilt never works.

Should charge a deposit on the bottles and cans too ( like what used to happen back in the day) - kids would actually be volunteering to collect the litter then in anticipation of keeping the proceeds. ( ah yes, I remember it well - we used to call it our pocket money)

Now, money back on bottles, thats something I had forgoten about, but what a good idea, recyceling involved there two. I grew up in Blurton, there was then as now, a good few old drunks down there-sorry Blurton,but it true, even one of your council members admited it in the local paper the other night- but the streets wern't full of old beer bottles then, I wonder why.

I like the concept of refundable bottles upon return to vendor - it reminds me of the Barr's pop bottles in my grandad's shop - but it would only have a very limited effect on the mindless discarding of litter in the street, and would not curb alcohol-related disorder. I agree that smashed green and brown glass on pavements may not be all that difficult to trace, however most of the real 'problem' drinks are consumed from cans and plastic 2 litre/3 litre bottles - usually certain brands of lager which belong in a urinal even before consumption, and the truly awful smelling/tasting super-strength paint-strippers that are somehow marketed as ciders. It is somewhat beyond my comprehension how certain brands of this vicious stuff can be concocted to such a high alcohol volume, yet retailed at such a low price. They are blatantly aimed at a particular clientele, which is tantamount to the encouragement by manufacturers of people to drink and poison themselves to death. In a perfect world it is this type of liquor that ought to be outlawed from sale and production entirely. However, I know that to step into that particular territory is fraught with nothing but problems.