Beer tax petition smashes past 100,000-name mark
By: JimOldfield
September 20th, 2012
Hand-Pumped EXCLUSIVE
The e-petition calling on the Government to scrap the hated beer tax escalator hit the 100,000-signature mark this morning.
The target was reached at 10.25am today (Thursday) and Hand-Pumped was the first to carry the story – posted within half a minute of the barrier being broken!
But the e-petition achievement should NOT stop you signing up… the greater the list of names, the greater the pressure on Parliament to act! And the e-petition will stay in operation until 9am on February 15 next year.
In just 10 weeks, the e-petition has risen by 40,000 signatures as angry drinkers get behind CAMRA, brewers’ institute SIBA, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and a host of other industry names ranged against Chancellor George Osborne for continuing the Labour-inspired escalator.
BBPA chief executive Brigid Simmonds said: “Thanks to the huge numbers who are supporting the campaign, this should be a real wake-up call for the Government.
“I hope even more people will now sign, as further huge annual tax hikes must not go ahead. They are hurting pubs and destroying our ability to create much needed jobs.”
CAMRA’s national chairman, Colin Valentine, added: “Joining a very small minority of e-petitions to have ever reached the 100,000 landmark is a mammoth achievement, and it’s been fantastic to witness the beer and pub industry uniting to fight back against this issue.
“CAMRA’s next step is not to rest on our laurels but to maintain the impetus with our Mass Parliamentary Lobby, which will reinforce to MPs the groundswell of support for this campaign.
“With all the battering it has taken, the beer and pub sector still manages to contribute over £21 billion a year to the UK’s GDP, and supports one million jobs, so it’s about time the Government honoured its pledge to be ‘pub friendly’.”
A colossal £1 per pint of our national drink currently goes into the Treasury’s pocket, and this year’s rise of five per cent took the tax up by an outrageous 42 per cent over the past four years.
The escalator is set to automatically increase the tax on beer by two per cent OVER the rate of inflation, every year until 2014.
Currently, British beer drinkers pay NINE times more Beer Tax than the French, and an astonishing THIRTEEN times more than the Germans. In the EU, only Finland slaps a higher tax on beer than the UK Treasury.
Hit the links below to follow our coverage of the story… and sign the e-petition if you haven’t already done so.
Hand-Pumped links:
Industry slams escalator
Beer tax causes 57-million-pint sales plunge
‘Ale rebel’ forces beer tax debate
Poor turn-out for beer debate
Hand-Pumped comment
Beer tax costs pubs £66,500 a year
The e-petition
