Proof we no longer control our tax system here in the UK: EU controls beer tax.

From the Morning Advertiser.Treasury Minister Angela Eagle says it’s “impossible” to have different levels of tax on alcohol in pubs compared to supermarkets.

She also said there were “no plans” to reverse the alcohol duty escalator announced in last year’s Budget. Eagle’s comments are contained in a January letter, seen by the MA, to Tory MP Michael Fabricant.

He wanted Government to justify its alcohol tax policy and asked if duty could be lowered for pub drinks to help struggling licensees.

The letter said: “Due to EU legislation the Government is not able to give a different tax treatment to the same product. This makes it impossible to tax the sale of alcohol in one place differently to another.”

Right so she has admitted that despite HM Govt crippling the pub trade with high duties, over regulation and un-needed paperwork she can do nothing due to EU rules. With a pub or three closing each day somewhere in the UK, she sits around on her spotty behind and hides behind EU laws.

It said alcohol duty is an “important revenue stream and there are no plans to change what was announced in 2008”, although the tax “will be kept under review”.

But Fabricant, MP for Lichfield, told the pre-Budget meeting of MPs and trade groups in Parliament that lobbying should continue.

“As Britain is one of the largest contributors to the EU, I think we should be putting more effort into saying ‘rules can be changed’.”

Fabricant said he would speak to Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne to “finalise details” of the party’s plan for lower tax on weaker drinks like beer and cider and higher duty on spirits and “alcopops”.

Labour fail to grasp the link between raising taxes and killing the mechanism for providing them with the tax revenues. Each time taxes are raised, fewer people use the pubs which is a direct link to more pub closures. 

God I want to shake some damn sense into this woman the “important revenue stream” as she puts it, will dry up with fewer pubs employing fewer workers. This leads to jobs being lost in local communities, a higher burden on the state as laid off workers claim benefits and often a focal point being lost in that area. 

Soon if this is not resolved the small pubs will vanish forever, leaving only joyless, souless chav palaces like corporate Mc'Beer chain JD Wetherspoon on the high street. 

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