Pub chain slaps ban on Darling

The Chancellor will be unable to drown his sorrows at one local pub chain - after being barred from its pubs for implementing inflation-busting price hikes.

Middleton Junction based brewers JW Lees has banned Alistair Darling from setting foot in any of its pubs after he increased UK beer duty to the highest levels in Europe in his last budget.

It means, should the Treasury chief be passing through the North-West or North Wales, he’d be unable to enjoy a frugal half in 172 pubs as he struggles to get to grips with the economy.

But there’s a serious message behind the ban as the family-run business, founded in 1828, fear pubs are facing one of the toughest periods in their history.

Increased taxes, the smoking ban and efforts to stamp out binge drinking has led to up to 40 pubs a week closing across the country.

The Who’d A Thowt It pub in Middleton, a JW Lees establishment, is the latest casualty.
For every pint of JW Lees Bitter sold at its recommended retail price, 34p is duty and 29p is VAT, meaning that JW Lees Bitter is now taxed at 32.8 per cent.

JW Lees tenants have been instructed to display posters in their bar saying they refuse to serve Mr Darling. Managing director William Lees-Jones said: “Alistair Darling is the British pubs enemy number one.

“British Pubs have suffered as a result of the Licensing Act, cheap alcohol sold by supermarkets and the constant meddling of successive governments.”

But there is some good news for the Government - PM Gordon Brown is still welcome in the chain’s pubs.