Join Save the Pub campaign

Just what have we done to deserve Alistair Darling? And why does he hate us so much?

Those are the questions on every shell-shocked licensee's lips as they try to make sense of what was billed in advance as a rescue package for industry but turned out to be another nail in the trade's coffin.

Not only has he put up duty now — he's no intention whatsoever of bringing it down next year, or the year after, or in any years after that. That 2% above inflation for the next four years duty escalator announced at the last Budget in March is firmly in place, despite the vehement protests of Morning Advertiser licensees and their customers, many thousands of whom have signed our Fight the Hikes in-pub posters. As far as Darling and his pals are concerned, alcohol is a cash cow to be milked as long and as hard as they can get away with it.

Let's face it — we were mugs to think otherwise. Reason and rational argument cut no ice with a Government ideologically opposed to alcohol. All that claptrap ministers come out with, saying "We're not demonising alcohol" is plain hogwash. They clearly are. Alcohol has replaced tobacco as the new enemy. The health lobby is in charge of the asylum.

Again, let's get real. There was no way this Government was going to let the price of alcohol go down. Every instinct in its body says more expensive alcohol is the only way to curb drinking levels. There will most likely be an announcement by Government to that effect on Monday. Along with more measures to tie the hands of operators — yet still allow the all-too-powerful supermarkets to go on peddling bargain-basement booze.

The Morning Advertiser has stated firmly and consistently that our trade lobbying groups will get nowhere until they can harness consumer power against the madcap politicians. That's why our Fight the Hikes campaign, which we launched after this year's Budget, was based on getting consumers to sign up and protest at what's being done to the trade.

And that's why we're so delighted the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA)

is set on using people power against the Government. The campaign it launches today — Axe the Tax, Save the Pub — is all about making the duty hikes and shabby treatment of pubs into a voting issue.

It's only when MPs feel they could lose their seats at the next election that they start to listen to lobby groups and individuals. The BBPA wants as many as possible to register their dismay at anti-pub treatment on its website — and demonstrate to Government how out of touch it is with the public. And with the next election possibly less than six months away, it's a great time to launch this campaign. Every licensee must get behind it. Nothing else will get the trade back up off its knees.