Greg's drive to save pubs

Lib Dem MP accuses Darling of 'killing the British pub' with crippling 2% duty rise

A Liberal Democrat MP is urging the trade to unite to save the British pub.

Greg Mulholland plans to launch a pan-industry campaign to help pubs — including action against the crippling beer-duty hikes.

The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group vice-chairman has invited 12 trade groups to a meeting in Parliament on 20 May to discuss the plans.

Mulholland is encouraging punters to re-discover the pub, and see planning laws reformed to make it harder to change pub usage.

This week Mulholland warned Chancellor Alistair Darling that he will "go down in history as the man who killed the British pub". Darling's Budget promised to raise duty by 2% above inflation for the next four years.

"The latest rise in beer duty will have a devastating impact on the pub trade, which is already experiencing very difficult times," Mulholland told Parliament.

"Darling has already been banned from pubs up and down the country because of this deeply-flawed plan. It will not only fail to raise the predicted level of tax, but force many pubs to close their doors for good."

The Leeds North West MP said Darling's plans to compensate people hit by the scrapping of the 10p income tax band shows "he is will-ing to U-turn on measures he announced in the Budget, and he should do so again".

n Visit www.morningadvertiser.co.uk to join the MA's Fight the Hikes campaign.

Punch backs plan to ban Darling from pubs

Punch Taverns boss Giles Thorley is backing calls for pubs to ban Darling.

Speaking at Punch's latest results, Thorley said the duty increases are "extremely disappointing".

"We would encourage the Government to do more to safeguard the future of the local pub at the heart of our communities, rather than penalising responsible pub-goers and licensees," he added.

"We support the industry's call to ban the Chancellor from every pub in the land."

Meanwhile, Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) chief executive Julian Grocock said the duty rises are "fundamentally flawed".

Writing in SIBA's spring Journal, he said the hikes won't cut bingeing or increase revenue.

- merely "hasten the decline of our national pub culture".