Edward Tattysyrup impersonator Alan Meale MP & EDM 389.

Well this one raised as laugh as I have previously mocked the MP in question.

Brew Wales covers Alan Meale MP and his rather daft ideas on cider...

It's always a good laugh to read the Early Day Motions put down by Members of Parliament. Some EDMs give the members an opportunity to get a mention in the local paper for congratulating the local football team winning their 5th division match or stopping asteroids or tsunamis from hitting their constituencies. All joking aside, the last two were actual EDMs. However Brew Wales came across this beauty from Edward Tattysyrup impersonator Alan Meale MP.

EDM 389

DUTY ON CIDER 08.12.2009That this House notes that duty paid on a pint of five per cent. alcohol cider is 29 pence less than is paid on a beer of equivalent strength; further notes that the UK Treasury could raise £400 million annually in additional revenue if cider duty were brought into line with beer duty; further notes that over 90 per cent. of UK cider is produced by three multinational companies; and calls on the Treasury to allow UK brewers to compete on equal terms by aligning cider and beer duty, whilst considering the introduction of some form of small producers' relief to protect and support traditional local cider makers.

Where do I start with this idiot?  **Flogging, slapping about the face until the brain wakes up? The options are endless.

Firstly the cider and beer markets are noticeably different, there is no "equal term" for them to compete on or either to aim for. The cider market is even more tied up than the beer market - you try being a medium-sized cidermaker and getting your cider into a the pubs of a pub company - the cidermaker stands no chance as the three multinationals can sell the cider cheaper, with full point of sale and marketing also available. For the small scale cidermaker the chances of getting into a pubco are even more remote. The Enterprise Inns pub, the Bell in Caerleon is a notable example though, but one pub out of their estate of thousands is unusual if not unique.
Clearly Meale fails to understand the market, being MP for Mansfield, not known as a great cider-producing area he has no first-hand knowledge of cider or cider production.

SO WHY DOES MEALE NOT JUST TAKE HIS ILL-INFORMED AND ILL-JUDGED OPINIONS WITH HIM AND STAY OUT OF CIDER?

If he wants brewers to compete on equal terms then lets see them give up space on the bar for a cider served from the handpump. That's more of an equal term than aligning beer and cider duty.
The problem is that Meale cannot stay out of any business, being a member of the Labour Party, the Government which seeks to tax everyone and everything and control our lives in every way possible. The last line about "considering the introduction of some form of small producers' relief to protect and support traditional local cider makers", does not go far enough for me, as knowing this Government as soon as they decide to implement something like this, ie, a tax rise on cider everyone will be hit.
You would have thought that someone like Meale, a former environment minister, would have a love of countryside and associated agricultural activities. After all the troughing pig did spend £13,000 in 4 years on gardening, paid for by the taxpayer.
Fido at the Lone Voice does, of course, have more on his expenses here. Some are printed below:
£4700 on a bathroom
£1300 on a "Garden cabinet" - That's a shed to us
£30 for 18th birthday cards
So a general trougher all round.
Early Day Motions have no chance of becoming law, they are merely a statement of opinion and as of today (16.12.09) only 14 MPs have signed EDM 389 including the self-confessed libelist and joker about farming suicides Paul Flynn MP. Nice company you keep Meale. 


**I shall add to that that I have taken a look at Edward Tattysyrup's expenses for this year(PDF)

Well he has been a busy chap hard at work claiming your money. £400 every month on food, £140 on cleaning in one month alone as well as £20 to have his windows cleaned.
Also he has claimed for garden work, vital I am sure for his work as an MP.

Oh and claims for dry cleaning every month, after all when making an arse of ones self in The Common's, one has to look ones best.

He also put in two receipts for batteries, yes a whole £2.79 each for Duracell batteries. At least Mrs Tattysyrup's vibrator will be working for the next week or two!

In fact he has handed in quite a few reciepts from the local Wickes store for lots of bits like cable clips. So nice to see MP's funding their sex lives at our expense.

He also bought, or rather we bought it for him; an earthing rod from B&Q for £7.98. That will come in useful in the dungeon when he is wearing the gimp mask I am sure.

Then we have the claim for £69 for garden equipment, so if any irate voters have vanished it might be worth PC Plod seeing if he has been doing any garden work lately.

We also paid for him to buy items from Guardroom Antiques at £40 a go and Hemswell Antiques at £29

Best of all, after buying him all this stuff, we also pay for the insurance on the goods that we bought him.

But light ribbing aside, he or rather you has paid his council tax, his gas bill and his water bill. Quite how can MP's talk about value for money, when they trouser their entire wage and we pick up the bill for all their food, utility bills and day to day living costs?

It is then any real surprise that they can not understand either our annoyance at their claims or their constant inept meddling in the business world leading to higher costs for the rest of us; the MP worries not as they get their drinks paid for by us.

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