Let’s compare prices for a pint of beer in many bars and restaurants in Parliament, which we subsidise – we, the taxpayers, subsidise – MPs pay about £3.90 for a pint of beer.
Back in the real world, that pint could cost you well nearer double.
You see, the problem with many of our MPs, and in particular those on the Labour benches, is that many are insulated from the effects that their policies bring.
It was only when Labour MPs were banned from pubs in their constituencies that the pressure was felt.
In the latest U-turn, which was swept under the bar as Sir Keir Starmer jetted off to China, Rachel Reeves backtracked on her increase on business rates relief by giving a 15 per cent reduction to publicans when the new rates kick in in April to be held there for at least two years.
Now, that, of course, doesn’t help other businesses that were also caught up in it.
But it’s a small admission that the plan, frankly, hadn’t been thought through properly.
Or maybe Labour MPs just wanted to be allowed back in their locals.
See, for many pubs, though, it’s too little, too late. Some have already shut their doors under the strain of that, the NI hike, minimum wage, business rates and so on.
The GB News star shared her opinion on Labour’s impact on British boozers
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GB NEWS
A bit like 84-year-old blind landlord of the Bell Pub in Northants, Dennis Willmott, who said that the sums simply didn’t add up anymore.
He’d been the licensee there for more than 56 years.
Even at £5.60 a pint, there wasn’t enough profit in selling beer, and to serve food he’d have to employ a chef. And with the NI hike that was out of the question.
Or let’s take the case of the couple who had planned to visit every pub with Bell in its name.
Their target of a thousand pubs was thwarted due to closures.
Frankly, you couldn’t have set this up better if you were actively trying to destroy the industry.
Rachel Reeves announced the temporary relief last week
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GETTYSadly, our Chancellor and her advisers clearly don’t actually appear to understand this or any industry, come to think of it.
They’ve got everything back to front. We’ve got a ballooning benefits bill that is set to increase in claimants by nearly a thousand people per day.
How can that work? Seriously, how can all those people be signed off work? It’s completely unsustainable.
You’ve got Home Office employees being awarded inflation-busting pay rises at nearly eight per cent.
But what, I hear you ask, for sheer incompetence, a backlog in processing claims and for enabling our out-of-control borders?
And you’ve even got an MP Apsana Begum, still living in a council house despite speaking out over the lack of affordable homes, despite her £94,000 salary and despite her admission that she probably shouldn’t be in it as she probably didn’t need it anymore.
I mean, has she no shame? In a recent Ipsos poll, people of this country were more dissatisfied than during the crash in 2008.
Everything is so expensive and our Government don’t appear to have a Scooby Doo.
Their answer is to tax it with their subsidised eateries and their position as an MP, which comes with privilege and their lack of understanding.
I’m afraid, sadly, many in our Government have frequented the halls of Westminster for too long and haven’t got the faintest idea how the real world lives.