Axe the Beer Tax - Campaign Update - Thursday 19th, February 2009

The Axe the Beer tax campaign is just 3 months old and is going from strength to strength. Since November, over 11,000 of you have sent emails to your MP via axethebeertax.com and over 22,000 people have joined the fight on Facebook.

And MPs are taking notice. Over 120 MPs have now signed a motion in support.

But we need to build up the pressure in the run up to the Chancellors budget in April. And we need your help. So, we want you to urge your MP to attend 2 important meetings in Westminster, organised by the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, to help hammer home the message to the Government.

We have now changed the lobby message on the axethebeertax.com to encourage as many MPs as possible to attend two vital meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group and urge you to ensure this new message is sent to MPs.

• On 24th February there is a pre-Budget Beer and Pub briefing at the House of Commons where MPs will be able to join the debate on why the Government should abandon its plans to impose more taxes on beer.
• On 4th March there will be a Pub Crisis Summit - when five Government Ministers will answer questions from MPs about the decline of local pubs.

It is vital that we get as many MPs to those meetings as possible. So please go to the “lobby your MP” section of the website to urge them to attend.

Thank you again for your support.

Other Campaign News

 

It was scrum down for the beer and pubs trade as our campaign went looking for support among rugby fans at the Six Nations internationals.

We thought there might just be a chance that rugby people would get behind the great British pub. And sure enough there have been plenty of conversions at Twickenham and Cardiff as our ‘brand warriors’ signed up supporters for the newly launched postcard campaign.

10,000 postcards were distributed at the events and thousands of rugby fans added their voice to a campaign.

Pubs Campaign Joins CAMRA Parliamentary Reception

 

The clamour for action to save the British pub reached Westminster last week as MPs joined Campaign for Real Ale members at their annual reception. John Grogan MP, chair of the Parliamentary Beer Group, paid tribute to the campaign that’s gathering force with all the backing it’s receiving from you, our supporters.

Speaking at the reception in the House of Commons, Mr Grogan said that the campaign “has been instrumental in pushing the issue of pubs up the political agenda”.

So well done to all supporters for getting the campaign on the map - now we need to keep the pressure up, with the budget not far away.

Axe the Beer Tax

info@axethebeertax.com
http://www.axethebeertax.com/

To keep up to date with this story, make sure you subscribe to the Siba RSS feed!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 3:55 pm and is filed under political. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.