PalenQ

Last night on the replay of this week's Prime Minister's Question Hour in Parliament Cameron was questioned by a fellow Tory member (from Burton, home to a major brewery) about his plans to even escalate more the already much higher than much of Europe taxes on beer and booze - stating that the UK taxes alcohol at rates 10-15 TIMES higher than places like Spain, Germany, etc.

And anyone used to buying beer or wine, etc in places like France or Germany or Italy, etc. will know about sticker shock when buying the same stuff in the UK.

Q - Why do the UK insist on absurdly high taxes on alcohol and what raise them even more?

And the cost of a pint of beer in pubs has already been outrageous to me, in European context - I suppose this too will cost even more soon?

I watch Coronation Street every day and am shocked at how much beer and booze the folks on The Street guzzle down and how without the bat on an eyelash these lower middle class (with the emphasis on 'lower') folks can afford to drop so much coin in the Rovers buying these expensive drinks on a presumably low incocme - I guess they have their priorities right?

But seriously enough already - how about lowering the cost of beer and booze to say EU levels?

bilboburgler

Burton hasn't had a serious brewery since the 60s. The Marston's brewery is famous for having one pub piped into the brewery. This is the only place Marstons is drinkable in the UK.

Corrie is fiction, so many pubs closing in the UK every week that even the Rover's return is in danger.

The Labour government decided some years ago that the Brits were sensible drinkers so they changed the rules on pub opening. As a result we now have drunk children (18-25 year olds) vomiting in the gutters in many town centres. The present government is trying to price out the drinks, but of course all it will do is bring the smugglers in even more. Last year we had a major fire in a midlands hidden factory where industrial alcohol was being bottled as vodka.

Hope this background helps understanding.

Alec

While the cost of drinks in the shops is generally higher than on many continental countries, when buying a drink in a bar, pub or restaurant, the mark-up is often steeper on the continent and you end up spending a similar amount (converted from euto to pound). I was in Rome recently and in a typical city-centre bar, half a litre of draft beer was around 4 euro, which compares well with a pint of lager (about 12% more than 0.5 litre) of around £3.50 to £4 in central London pubs.

As for taxing alcohol, in UK the alcohol has always been regarded as non-essential luxury and has been highly taxed. It's not for nothing it's called 'sin' tax! In contrast, in major wine-producing countries, wines are a daily staple so carry no more than VAT without extra duty on top as in UK.

PalenQ

very interesting and thanks a bunch - I'll raise one to you in the Rovers on my next return to Salford!

PalenQ

Alec - you are correct about the cost of drinks at a bar - very high - I assume because the wait staff is paid a proper salary with benefits, etc. is part of the cause.

hetismij2

Duty on beer increased 10% on January 1st here, and duty on wine 20% Add to that the VAT increase last year to 21% and you can see that here a 25cl glass of beer went up by 5€cents at the start of the year. So a pint (50cl is called a pint here) costs about €5.50, assuming it is a relatively weak pils, not a stronger beer, which will cost more due to higher duty as the duty is worked out for beer on it's strength.

Those prices make the UK look cheap, but the Netherlands is still a bargain compared to Norway .

flanneruk

Booze has inflated over the past 20 years far more slowly than prices generally.

The result (and I speak as a significant over imbiber) is that ordinary decent taxpayers are subsidising us boozers: alcohol-related disease costs government funds more than booze taxes bring in. What's the ratio in the US? They haven't got the faintest idea

The outrage felt by PalQ is not shared by most Britons. Booze taxes - unlike US income taxes - can't be dodged by hiring expensive tax lawyers.

I suggest he stick to (or initiate) investigating the misuse of US taxpayers' funds by America's archaic pseudo-monarch, his spongeing family and the preposterous cost of his personal fleet of private jumbo jets and helicopters. Or even find out how much The Great Teleprompter Reader actually costs.

We're quite capable of holding our government to account without the help of the world's most easily gulled electorate.

PatrickLondon

>>Q - Why do the UK insist on absurdly high taxes on alcohol and what raise them even more?<<

What flanner said, plus political acceptability. Such taxes (also on tobacco products) are commonly called "stealth taxes" (because at the level of any one purchase, people don't notice increases that much, so it causes less hooha than increasing income or other taxes, and people are just used to it), or "sin taxes" (because people realise it's optional whether you pay them, and that there are arguments for using price mechanisms to put people off consumption or at least raise more money for the consequences of over-indulgence)