Darling, you are barred!

11:49am Monday 14th April 2008

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Chancellor Alistair Darling has been banned from the Wellington Arms in Watford following his "tyrannical, anti-pub" budget.

Licensee Warren Baker has written to Mr Darling informing him that he is no longer welcome and has put up a poster, which states "We hereby give notice that Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is barred from this pub until further notice".

The Wellington Arms is one of hundreds of pubs taking direct action against the Chancellor as part of a national campaign supported by pub industry bible the Morning Advertiser.

Warren Baker said: "By adding 4p to a pint of beer and promising to raise duty two per cent above inflation for the next four years, Darling will be solely responsible for the closure of a record number of pubs.

"The budget will drive people away from the supervised environment of the pub and into the arms of the deep discounting supermarkets.

"The supermarkets can afford to take the increases on board, so their rock bottom prices will continue as will binge drinking and youths downing alcohol on street corners and in parks.

"The earliest predictions from Goldman Sachs point to a ten per cent drop in trade at the average pub since the smoking ban came into effect on 1 July last year.

"We are also suffering from rising utility costs, wholesale beer price increases and the cheap and irresponsible deals being offered on alcohol in the supermarkets.

"The trade is on its knees and asked the Chancellor for help but instead he has hammered the final nail in the coffin of the British pub.

"As the poet Hilaire Belloc said: When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England."

Campaign for Real Ale chief executive Mike Benner said the budget was a "great big nail whacked ruthlessly in the coffin of the British pub".

He added: "The Chancellor has failed to recognise that well-run community pubs are the solution to Britain's binge drinking problems.

"This budget will do nothing to stop binge drinking, but it will lead to pub closures on a huge scale, widen the gap between supermarket and pub prices and encourage smuggling and cross-border shopping."

Rob Hayward, British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) chief executive, said: "Alistair Darling has just launched the £6.50 pint in time for the London Olympics. This will escalate pub closures, which are already at record levels "Government is punishing all beer drinkers rather than tackling the minority of drunken hooligans.

"But Government policy is fuelling Britain's binge drink problem by driving people away from beer, out of the pub, and into the arms of the deep discounting supermarkets."

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