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The latest issue of SIBA Journal, the Society of Independent Brewers’ membership magazine, carries an article from Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, in which he expresses the organisation’s support for “responsible drinking” and deplores the current drinking culture that “values drinking at home over going to the pub.”

Shenker’s column, headlined ‘It’s concern, not killjoy’, contains several messages that will resonate with SIBA members who run breweries or pubs. He is critical of supermarket pricing, calling it ‘a scandal’ that they can sell alcohol so cheaply and advocating a minimum price of 50p per alcohol  unit, which he argues would have little or no effect on pub prices and “help the pub trade enormously”.

Pubs, says Shenker, “should be encouraged and rewarded financially for improving community life.” In his concluding paragraph, he calls on action from industry and government to support “a shift in our drinking culture from the current predominance of a ‘drink to get drunk’ approach to one that encourages maturity, responsibility and a respect for community values.”

Julian Grocock, SIBA’s chief executive, comments, “We have in the past called on Alcohol Concern and health lobbying organisations to recognise that in well-run pubs serving relatively low ABV cask beer, drinking is part of a social occasion, rather than an end in itself.  It is therefore very encouraging to see Alcohol Concern express some support for pubs in this article.”

SIBA has sought to build a relationship with Alcohol Concern, having earlier this year become a corporate member of the organisation.  Grocock says, “Our dialogue with Alcohol Concern has revealed common ground – in particular the role played by the pub in promoting responsible drinking – which we should be using as a foundation for a joint strategy.”

MPs from the three main political parties joined forces on Wednesday to support the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign to change the smoking ban.

The event, held at the House of Commons, marked the fourth anniversary of smoking ban in England and saw the Rt Hon Greg Knight, Conservative MP for East Yorkshire, Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, and John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, hosting a reception for over 200 supporters of the campaign which lobbies MPs for a review of the ban and an amendement of the legislation.

Attendees. which included publicans and members of the Clubs & Institute Union Organisers, discussed how the ban has had a devastating impact on community pubs throughout Britain.

Speaking at the event Roger Godsiff, Labour member for Birmingham Hall Green said: “The reason I am more than happy to support this campaign is because I believe that the British tradition of pubs, working men’s clubs and other places where people can meet is a very important tradition that I would like to keep going.

“For somebody to have the opportunity of going into a pub and having a drink is also not putting smoke in somebody else’s face but being able to go to a separate room where they can smoke, whether it be a cigarette, a pipe or a cigar, I can see absolutely nothing at all wrong with that.”

Simon Clark, director of Save Our Pubs & Clubs, said: “Campaigners said they want a review of the ban and an amendment to the legislation that would give pubs and private members’ clubs the option of having separate, well-ventilated smoking rooms. The Government should review the ban and consider a change in the law that would allow separate smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.”

Taken from:  Morning Advertiser

I heard what the Chancellor said in his Budget statement about alcohol duty – and I understood it. Everybody else I know in the industry got the dismal message too, including the trade media: the Morning Advertiser immediately posted an online report that the duty escalator was still in place and an inflation-plus-2% increase would be applied from Monday 28th March.

But by then the BBC News channel had posted the headline “No change to alcohol duty” beneath the still-speaking Mr Osborne. And a quick google revealed numerous tweets celebrating no increase – including one from the This is Money website, which a whole day later has still failed to grasp the meaning of the announcement: while correctly reporting a 2% above inflation increase on tobacco, its line on alcohol (which should say the same) reports ambiguously “no additional changes to alcohol duty rates”.

At 2pm, well after the Chancellor had sat down, the Politics page of the BBC News website maintained that alcohol duty had been “frozen”; at 7pm the Channel 4 News headline was “no extra changes” to alcohol duty; and ITN’s News at Ten said pretty much the same thing, but confused the issue even further by saying “no additional changes” while showing a graphic which declared “no changes”. Not the same thing at all.

This is all because what Mr Osborne said – with no elaboration but lots of obfuscation – was that there would be no change to the policy introduced under the previous government. He didn’t dwell on it because to do so would have made clear what the Treasury has since confirmed: alcohol duty rates will rise next Monday by 7.2%.

He should make an unequivocal statement to that effect now, if only to enlighten the nation’s finest news reporters and to save our industry from eternal damnation when prices have to go up in spite of the widely held public misconception that they won’t. Better still, of course, he should reverse his decision.

The Chancellor didn’t spell it out because he’s ashamed to admit it. Industry campaigns – including SIBA’s Proud of British Beer film – have hit home and generated a lot of cross-party support. Many MPs now want to see an end to a taxation policy that is failing to generate additional revenue and which guarantees nothing else but further misery for British pubs, sealing the fate of many more small businesses and hastening the decline of the communities in which they will close their doors for the last time.

How will this contribute to David Cameron’s “Big Society”? And that’s not a rhetorical question, Mr Osborne – we would very much appreciate a straight answer.

Julian Grocock

SIBA CEO