Are Cabinet Members And Senior Civil Servants Out Of Touch?

[factor-fiction]

I'm not aiming this in particular at George Osborne but one measure in his budget to me was a good example of where a measure that was intended to be popular backfires because it invites the politician to be a figure of fun. Most chancellors make this mistake at some stage.

I'm thinking of the 1p a pint reduction in beer tax announced yesterday. I could hear and see people yesterday shaking their heads and saying 'one penny?' I know he was trying to reverse the trend of ever increasing duty on beer in order to start to protect pubs and marginally help reduce the RPI, but surely he would have been better simply announcing that he was freezing the duty.

[weecalf]

Just think if you drank 10 pints a day for a week thast 70 pence you have saved yourself .

[aelmpvw]

we're not all rushing out to celebrate with a pint are we?

[factor-fiction]

Maybe it is worth 70p a week to you weecalf, but for me it's about 70p a year.
Sometimes I think it's better to say or give nothing than announce that you are giving a miniscule amount. It's a bit like calling the waitress over in a restaurant and handing her a 10p tip.

[emmie]

seeing as how our average pint is now 4 quid, it's hardly a saving.

[doctordb]

It always amazes me that why, with something so important to the country as the budget, so much attention is placed on the cost of a pint. It's hardly a barometer of fiscal competency.

[ummmm]

Because doctor, they are taxing peoples social habits. People like to go to the pub and for years the government having been taxing it to the point that it's unaffordable for many.

[emmie]

so many of our pubs have shut, one that we used many years ago was built in early 1860's, so its not a good thing at all. If people spend less money in the pub because of the high cost, then pub loses, customer loses, the social aspect was the reason to go to one, meet friends, have fun, now that has been almost taxed, priced out of existence.

[Gizmonster]

This reduction prob won't be passed on to the customer - and to be honest, I wouldn't expect it to be.
My local has just increased the cost of a pint of Carling 10p to £2.60, due to price increases by the brewery.
I can't see them knocking 1p off a pint and I wouldn't want them to. Most of their prices are usually rounded to the nearest 10p anyway .... it annoys me when I'm in town and it's £3.26 for a drink for example - why not just call it £3.30 .... after I've had a few drinks, I really can't be bothered fishing out the exact change to the penny, but I don't want to end up with loads of change, which I inevitably will ............

1p reduction - WIT WOO ...........

[Boto]

If the duty goes UP by 1p there are grumbles but if it goes down by 1p there's there's still moaning.

[doctordb]

It's the big dominant brewery cartels that are the real threat to the pubs, not 1p on a pint. In 1990 a pint of 6x cost me 1.10. In 2013 at the same pub it's 3.50. 23 years later that seems about right to me.

[factor-fiction]

Exactly, Boto- it would seem to me to be better to say nothing on the subject or just say the planned increase in beer duty has been scrapped

[doctordb]

No wonder we're in one of the worst financial periods in our history when the cost of a pint is so important.

[jake-the-peg]

Well he could give us more money on our pockets or he could pay off more of the bankers defecit

It's all a matter of priorities

[factor-fiction]

drb- I bet the price of a pint has been mentioned in more or less every budget since the war- along with the cost of cigarettes, the duty on fuel, the duty on spirits, the thresholds for income tax... , as these taxes are a key part of the revenue raised

[LazyGun]

Its just one of those items on the budget that has traditionally been used as a kind of barometer of populist appeal, but I would agree it is increasingly irrelevant, and to trumpet 1p off a pint of beer as some kind of triumph of financial wizardry is silly.

I know that the predominant business in my old home town of Burton will be quite happy with the news, but I doubt it will have much of an impact even on their business :)

[Baldric]

Very rarely go to the Pub nowadys, a round of drinks for OH and myself is between £7 to £7.50, I can buy 4 pints (cans) of premium Lager for £5 and drink in the comfort of my own home

[Baldric]

And to answer your question factor, if you look at our senior politicians, there isn't one of them that's ever had a proper job, so I don't think they've ever been in touch in the first place!

[youngmafbog]

I think this is a classic case of 'manage the message'

I dont think it means anyone is out of touch, just the presentation was wrong. It is clearly to counter the 'pasty tax' last year and show in fact they are thinking about us commoners.

But the message was presented wrong and now we all moan!

[douglas9401]

Of course they're out of touch, and they don't really care. As long as they allow our whippet racing and a bath in front of the fire once a week whether we need it or not they think all is right with the world.

[Baldric]

^^^^^^^ You certainly live the high life douglas!