Now, we all know it’s the smokers of this country who prop up the Government coffers with the extortionate tax on cigarettes, but let’s not forget England’s drinkers. When ever there’s a budget those in charge of fleecing the already poor, always manage to add a tad extra to the price of a pint.
I mean, can you recall the last time that wine, whiskey or champagne went up? No, no, as usual, it’s the average man and woman in the street who are having the life squeezed out of them and the ones who have to work twice as hard to make ends meet.
If you didn’t know already, it’s the way puffers and slurpers are controlled in this and other countries because of the addictive nature of alcohol and nicotine. And it’s been a well used method of power over the masses pegged since the days of yore, mead and flagons. The only difference now is, soon it’ll be cheaper to drink four star!
If you’re an aware person, you should by now have noticed the conflicting reports on alcohol via Governmental information and the World Health Organization. The latter makes a big to-do to show their concerns with the use of alcohol, but really nothing actually changes.
Take the unit system of gauging what you consume. Could it be anymore confusing? Typically, from the Governments side, it’s perfect to keep alcohol buying up and the tax coming in. The only foolproof system would be is to introduce a format whereby if you didn’t understand what you were reading, you know you’re pissed!
And another thing, cigarette advertisements on television have been banned for years now, and yet you can view a Guinness or Lager ad 24 hours a day. Then are the deals you can find in the supermarkets. So it’s great to know that Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and the like are supporting the British alcoholic.
If you go back a few years, and you don’t have to go far, the pubs in this country closed at 11:20pm and an off-license would be shut at 10:30. My, how things have changed! Now you can drink your self stupid until the early hours and if you feel you need a top-up, you can pop down your local food store and buy a few more cans at 8:30 in the morning! What the hell’s that all about?
And now for a bit of history and mathematics. To put thing in prospective you have to comprehend the wages of the time and the old money system, pounds, shillings and pence, (£-s-d). Today’s pound is divisible by 100 pennies, but when I was growing up in the 60’s; it was divisible by 240 much bigger pennies, and it was a period when you actually felt like you had money in your pocket.
Prior to WW I, 1914 you could buy a pint in this country for 3d, leaving you with 237 pennies out of you old pound. The ‘d’ symbol comes from a silver Roman coin called a denarius. And don’t forget, there were 240d to the pound and 12 pennies to a shilling, which now everyone calls a 5 pence piece.
By 1920 the price of a pint had doubled to sixpence or 6d or a tanner, and tanner equates to two and a half pence in today’s money. And, at the time, the price of a pint had better relativity between its cost and a person’s wages. Now it seems you need £20,000 plus, just so you can afford a pint in your local.
In my 20’s the pub circuit was the great gathering point, a real social hub. Forget silent friends on a computer, my social life was a live face book page, most nights of the week. I could buy three pints with a pound note and still have 10p change, and 20 Rothmans would cost me 42p! And that was in 1976.
However, it’s not until you get a little older, you realise what’s what in the tax department. You may get an answer to a question you pose, but nothing will change because well, everyone else pays taxes, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE!
A long while ago I visited a friend in Cardiff and it wasn’t long before we were sitting down in his local pub with a pint in front of us. Sometime later it was my round. I ordered two more beers but was astonished to find out the same two Welsh pints were 70p cheaper than the London pints!
And then it dawned on me, I’m on the wrong level of the tax and earnings pyramid, and I and thousands like me are getting belted from all sides, and unless I secure a substantial lottery win, that were I’ll stay. Born free – taxed to death, and that’s the way it’s been for hundreds and hundreds of years. An educated person could get a little ticked off with that piece of information!
So how can the same product, made by the same company, has such a range in price from one part of the country to next? A landlord will say, ‘The brewery is in charge of pricing’. And the brewery will say it’s the cost of fuel and transportation.” So logically, if you drive to the pub, you’re getting charged twice for petrol, just so you can enjoy a pint in your local – a nice little earner.
As we stand to date, the average price of a pint in London is £3.05 and the cheapest pint I could find was a pound in Bridgend. But you’ll be pleased to know I’ve found the most expensive ‘sherbet’ in the UK, and I can only assume the beer is served by a high class topless escort and delivered to you on a platinum tray. If you fancy a pint get yourself along to a pub Guilford where you can pick one up for just £6.09!!!
Some people don’t know the difference between ripping and tearing…
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