As someone who chooses not to drive but who likes a drink or two ...

[non sociopath skin]

... I'd like to thank the Chancellor for letting all those poor motorists off the hook.:evilfrown:

I'm sure it's what Jesus would have done.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Switch to white cider

For no apparent reason, while beer gets duty in proportion to the amount of alcohol in it, all cider gets taxed as if it's about 2% ABV. So it's no wonder that crap like White Lightning is the cheapest way to get drunk - 2 litres of it, at 7.5% ABV, just attracts (up till today) 51p duty, while 2 litres of beer at 5% ABV gets £1.32.

[non sociopath skin]

2. I'm sure that winos and pissartists are grateful ...

... Pity they don't vote! :evilgrin:

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

4. Have you seen he price of cooking sherry ?

The ladies and gentlemen of the "grass arena" can't be that happy.

[JVS]

3. Sainsbury basics cider RULES.

I'll have to try some 7.5% stuff at the store that costs £3 for 3 liters

[fedsron2us]

5. There used to a pub in Taunton called the Myrtle Tree

where everyone including the pet parrot appeared to be permanently addled on cider.

I remember one poor soul appearing on the local radio station lamenting the fact he had gone blind in his 50's. At the end of the interview that his doctor suspected that his affliction was related to the fact that he had been downing over 10 pints of home brewed scrumpy a day for twenty years.

In my time I have been a bit of a boozer and have knocked around with one or two heavy drinkers but without exception we NEVER touched cider. We all regarded those who drank it copiously as definitely bound for perdition.

[T_i_B]

6. One of my favorite local pubs round here sells scrumpy...

...and it's always what the underage kids order, and then proceed to get utterly paralytic on, much to the amusement of the locals.

That said, the last round of increases on beer duty have caused a bit more uproar then most, coming as they have done on the back of rising costs in the brewing industry. A lot of people in the pub trade are now very unhappy with the government, as can be witnessed by the increasing number of "ALISTAIR DARLING, YOU'RE BARRED!" signs now showing up at many pubs and even at beer festivals.

[fedsron2us]

7. If the government was truely serious about tackling drunken behaviour

then they would be encouraging the production and sale of the cheap 'mild', 'small' or 'boy' beers at 3.5 ABV or less that used to be commonly consumed in the UK in the past. Encouraging people to go on sessions drinking lager at an average of 5 % ABV and cider at over 6% ABV is recipe for trouble.

[moggie]

8. That takes me back

When I was at school in the 1970s, there was a cider house not far from the school, and one of our number, a farm boy and would-be yokel, introduced us to it. I shudder to think of the large quantities of the muck I put away as an underage drinker. That and his home-distilled calvados tasting faintly of dissolved plastic. Oh to have a teenager's constitution again.