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oldboots
24-02-2012, 19:48
This is the link to the e-petition demanding an end to the beer duty escalator which automatically increases beer duty by inflation plus 2% every year allowing slippery politicians to claim "the Chancellor has imposed no additional beer duty this year".

Please consider signing it and tell all your friends to do the same,

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29664

rpadam
24-02-2012, 19:55
Done...

gillhalfpint
24-02-2012, 20:04
Done.

Old Blue
24-02-2012, 20:14
Likewise.

Strongers
24-02-2012, 20:21
Sneaky fecking feckers... Done

ETA
24-02-2012, 22:40
Done and passed on to non-PuGgers

AlanH
24-02-2012, 23:41
Signed, sealed and delivered.

sheffield hatter
25-02-2012, 08:32
Done. And shared the link on Facebook.

Bucking Fastard
25-02-2012, 10:07
Thanks for posting the link oldboots,I'm signed up.

Farway
25-02-2012, 10:32
Done

ROBCamra
25-02-2012, 10:58
And me. :pray:

Oggwyn Trench
25-02-2012, 11:33
Me to

Thuck Phat
28-02-2012, 10:26
And me.

Rex_Rattus
28-02-2012, 12:44
Me as well.

arwkrite
28-02-2012, 13:26
Yeah.

Delboy20
02-03-2012, 19:07
Done and passed on to a few others.

hondo
12-06-2012, 08:18
finally got round to signing this :cool:

Mobyduck
12-06-2012, 20:39
done and dusted

oldboots
21-09-2012, 07:58
At last...... The e-petiton finally reached 100,000 signatures around 10am yesterday. Thanks to everyone who signed.


The next step is for a motion to be presented to the back bench committee that will decide if we can have a debate, a debate is not automatically guaranteed. You can write to your MP and try to get them to support the call for a debate and of course freezing or abolishing the escalator, Melissa Cole has this idea (http://letmetellyouaboutbeer.co.uk/?p=2115) - check the first comment as well.

Sadly the Treasury has already said it won't scrap the escalator but there's no harm in trying.


The next public step is a mass lobby of MPs on the 12th December see here (http://www.saveyourpintlobby.org.uk/)

Aqualung
21-09-2012, 19:18
Is it not possible to get the 38 Degrees people in on this? It seems to have taken an age to get the 100,000 signatures.

hondo
25-09-2012, 07:32
Is it not possible to get the 38 Degrees people in on this? It seems to have taken an age to get the 100,000 signatures.

i see the anti badger cull petition got 100,000 signatures in about 2 weeks
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257

oldboots
25-09-2012, 07:48
i see the anti badger cull petition got 100,000 signatures in about 2 weeks

Yep and Branson has now got 174,000 for his carp train service, I think it tells you a lot about the British and what they value.

The time taken to get to the magic number certainly undermines the petition's credibility with politicians, I'm not holding my breath that we'll even get a debate but I'm going to badger :D my MP to get it.

oldboots
23-10-2012, 16:07
We have got the debate :cheers:

Andrew Griffiths MP ‏@agriffithsmp tweeted this afternoon,

"It is official. We have been granted a 3 hr debate on the floor of the House of Commons on scrapping the Beer Duty Escalator on 1st Nov. "


I wonder what effect that date has on CAMRA's mass lobby on 12/12/12?

I do know we won't get a lot of positive coverage on the BBC:D

Aqualung
23-10-2012, 20:47
I do hope that something positive comes from this although I am not holding my breath. What annoys me most is the line the supporters of the escalator come up with claiming that it will help cut down on binge drinking. This is total rubbish as so-called binge drinkers (ie, younger people who fall out of night clubs causing all sorts of grief) are not beer drinkers. they drink spirits or alco-pops (if they still exist).

If you feel that the BBC aren't giving any coverage to this why not complain? I complained about the Olympic news coverage ( especially in the London news ) earlier this year and did get fobbed off, but I knew I wasn't on a winning cause.

oldboots
24-10-2012, 08:07
Wine, spirits and cider are also subject to an escalator but the method of applying the duty is different. The health lobby will point to falling sales (when and only when it suits their case) as proof that increasing prices reduces consumption. However there is no information breaking down the reduction by income/age group etc and also nobody really knows the extent of the consumption of smuggled, VAT fraud, counterfeit or home made alcohol.


The BBC has an obvious built in bias against drink but mainly beer. Wine of course presents them with a dilemma;

it's a lovely middle class drink that we at the BBC all enjoy, it's the only drink that goes with food and it doesn't do us any harm

against

we must join in the "Binge Britain" moral panic so the Daily Mail doesn't get upset and of course we can use those great telly pictures of drunk youngsters fighting and vomiting while we tut tut about "alcohol".



They seem to get round this dilemma by thinking wine isn't "alcohol", much in the way a lot of people think alcohol isn't a drug or maybe isn't "drugs". So as with the Olympics not a whole lot of point complaining.

Aqualung
24-10-2012, 21:27
I detect a cynicism almost equal to my own, and I thought I was the only one like that!!!

Mobyduck
24-10-2012, 22:15
I detect a cynicism almost equal to my own, and I thought I was the only one like that!!!
Cynicism but unfortunately justified.

ETA
25-10-2012, 11:19
This is the point where cynicism and realism meet.

Quinno
25-10-2012, 11:20
The BBC has an obvious built in bias against drink but mainly beer.

Indeed, almost every story they run about alcohol has the same stock photos of beer / someone drinking a pint.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-19715002

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19490952

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-18725195

Spinko
25-10-2012, 16:38
Indeed, almost every story they run about alcohol has the same stock photos of beer / someone drinking a pint.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-19715002

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-19490952

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-18725195

Good research Quinno, and the last one is a joke. When have you heard of anyone under 18 drinking real ale?

I saw plenty of under age drinkers in an unnamed Northampton venue on Tuesday evening and like me they were drinking cheap shots of vodka...

ETA
26-10-2012, 08:18
When have you heard of anyone under 18 drinking real ale?


Not sure if you mean nowadays - but certainly my school friends and I were almost brought up on the stuff!

Spinko
26-10-2012, 10:55
Not sure if you mean nowadays - but certainly my school friends and I were almost brought up on the stuff!

Just going off my mates, the earliest most people get into real ale these days is mid-20s...that's with a lot of persuasion and usually by pointing out they can get a 5% pint for under £2 in Wethers...

Wittenden
26-10-2012, 22:12
When have you heard of anyone under 18 drinking real ale?

.

Our son (20) drinks real ale and appreciates it, but finds it difficult to get his mates into the pub-in York of all places...

aleandhearty
27-10-2012, 11:32
Our son (20) drinks real ale and appreciates it, but finds it difficult to get his mates into the pub-in York of all places...

You can just imagine several fathers thinking What! you're in York and you're drinking WKDs / Stella / Magners. :eek:

hondo
31-10-2012, 09:43
"increase taxes on beer by 160%"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/30/french-brewers-rise-beer-tax?newsfeed=true

Aqualung
31-10-2012, 13:55
The last time I went to France (20 years ago now) the price of beer in a bar was the same as London (not Spoons) prices but the supermarket prices were very cheap. The same applied in Belgium I seem to recall.


By "France" I don't mean Paris or any other major City but Brittany. If this goes ahead in France the French will just drink the House Red rather than beer resulting in diminishing returns of duty.
Presumably it will hit booze cruises if they still occur.