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The tax raids that mean your holiday beers are cheaper than British pints
The tax raids that mean your holiday beers are cheaper than British pints

Telegraph

time4 days ago

  • Business
  • Telegraph

The tax raids that mean your holiday beers are cheaper than British pints

British beer drinkers have been hit with bigger tax raids than anywhere else in Europe over the past six years, The Telegraph can reveal. At 61p per pint of lager, beer excise duties in the UK are among the highest in Europe, and are 9p more than in 2019, according to data from the Tax Foundation. The rate is three times higher than in France, Italy and the Netherlands, which both tax around 19p per pint, and Germany, where consumers pay just 4p. The tax raid contributes to the typically much lower prices holidaymakers will pay for beer on the continent this summer. Whilst the UK has increased duties considerably, most of Europe has kept theirs effectively frozen, with Portugal increasing levies by 4p and France by just a single penny. Exemptions made for draft pints served in pubs reduced duties to around 55p per pint, still almost three times the EU average. Hospitality business leaders warn the combined cost of beer taxes, VAT and Labour's employer National Insurance hike could ultimately see the cost of a pint soar further. The industry has lost 84,000 jobs since the 2024 Autumn Budget, according to the trade body UK Hospitality. Kate Nicholls, the chairman of UK Hospitality, said: 'Beer duty in the UK has been among the highest in Europe, along with our 20% VAT rate for hospitality. 'These taxes and other recently increased business costs, such as the change to employer NICs, will mean that the price of a pint will stay high and potentially become higher, and pubs and bars will have no choice but to pass on costs to customers.' In the Autumn Budget, Rachel Reeves increased the amount employers pay towards National Insurance from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent. The price of a pint has soared by over 28 per cent across the UK since January 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics, with a variety of factors to blame, including inflation and tax. The average price of a pint now stands at £4.83, but this would be just £4.22 without alcohol excise duties, or £4.28 if served in a pub. The figures also hide extreme regional variations, with the average price of a pint in west central London now topping £7.32, according to CGA, a market research company specialising in hospitality. In the EU, minimum beer excise duties are set by Brussels, but the vast majority of EU member states chose to go above this. In Finland, consumers pay roughly 90p per pint of 5 per cent-strength lager, by far the highest in Europe. This is followed by the UK on 61p, Ireland on 55p and Sweden on 48p. At the bottom of the list are Spain, Luxembourg, Germany and Bulgaria, which all charge 4p per pint. The Tax Foundation has monitored duties levied by states since 2019 and just seven states have increased taxes at 1p or higher over the period. Alcohol duties were reformed in 2023, basing them on the strength of the alcohol. This meant tax on certain drinks, such as wine and spirits, increased considerably. Taxes on draught pints were not changed in an attempt to keep prices below supermarket levels. Ms Reeves also cut duties on pints in pubs in the Autumn Budget by 1.7 per cent. But bottled beer served in pubs or bought at supermarkets has not been exempt from tax changes, according to the Tax Foundation's analysis. A spokesperson from HM Treasury said: 'Beer is more affordable in the UK than in much of Europe and in last year's Budget we supported pubs by cutting 1p off duty on draught pints.'

Gunman arrested as California parole officer is fatally shot in his Oakland office in front of horrified colleagues
Gunman arrested as California parole officer is fatally shot in his Oakland office in front of horrified colleagues

Daily Mail​

time19-07-2025

  • Daily Mail​

Gunman arrested as California parole officer is fatally shot in his Oakland office in front of horrified colleagues

A California parole agent was fatally shot in the line of duty after an assailant stormed his office in Oakland. Joshua Lemont Byrd, aged 40, died when his attacker stormed the Division of Adult Parole Operations office at around 12.50 pm on Thursday. The suspect then fled from the building but was later detained by officers from Oakland Police Department (OPD). The suspect was identified as Bryan Keith Hall, 48, who was recently paroled from prison, according to Fox KTVU. Hall had a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing a man in the neck on Lakeshore in a case handled by OPD and the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. Father-of-three Byrd was transported to Highland Hospital, where he tragically died. On Thursday, OPD officers, Alameda County Sheriff's Office, CHP, and state patrol assembled outside the hospital when Byrd's body (shielded by an American flag) was carried out and placed into a coroner's vehicle. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Acting Governor Eleni Kounalakis said in a statement: 'This is a heartbreaking loss. Agent Byrd served with integrity and courage - and we're forever grateful. 'We are keeping his family in our prayers and we join the men and women of CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] in mourning this tragedy.' Byrd left behind a wife and three children, and a GoFundMe account was set up to support his family members and loved ones. Byrd's partner Hugh Soloman explained on the page: 'Byrd was a great guy and officer. He was very dependable and cared for all. He was a Navy veteran before he joined CDCR and Parole.' 'The purpose of the donation is to help the family in the uncertain and tragic time. The honor box will show his family how much he was loved and honored.' The motive of the shooting remained unclear and was not yet released. Byrd's death's the first line-of-duty loss for CDCR since 2018.

The cost of conscience: I lost friends for defending Palestinians
The cost of conscience: I lost friends for defending Palestinians

Al Jazeera

time28-05-2025

  • General
  • Al Jazeera

The cost of conscience: I lost friends for defending Palestinians

I have written a lot about the heart-piercing trials and tragedies of Palestinians for a long time. I have treated every word of every column that has appeared on this page, devoted to Palestine's precarious fate and the indefatigable souls who refuse to abandon it, as an obligation and a duty. It is the obligation and duty of writers – who are privileged to reach so many people in so many places – to expose injustice and give pointed expression to gratuitous suffering. I have made it plain throughout: Here I stand. Not because I am the all-knowing arbiter of right from wrong – any honest writer is aware of how exhausting and foolish that can be – but because I am obliged to tell the truth clearly and, if need be, repeatedly. I consider ending what has happened and continues to happen to Palestinians to be the moral imperative of this awful, disfiguring hour. It requires a response since silence often translates – consciously or by neglect – into consent and complicity. Each of us who shares this sense of obligation and duty responds in our own way. Some make speeches in parliaments. Some lock arms in demonstrations. Some go to Gaza and the occupied West Bank to ease, as best they can, the pervasive misery and despair. I write. Writing in defence of Palestinians – of their humanity, dignity, and rights – is not meant, nor can it be dismissed, as a polemical provocation. For me, it is an act of conscience. I do not write to mollify. I refuse to qualify what has happened and is happening to Palestinians as 'complex' to provide readers with a convenient and comfortable ethical exit ramp. Occupation is not complex. Oppression is not complex. Apartheid is not complex. Genocide is not complex. It is cruel. It is wrong. It must yield to decency. Writing about Palestinians in this blunt, uncompromising way invites all sorts of replies from all sorts of quarters. Some readers praise your 'courage'. Some thank you for 'speaking' for them, for not flinching, for naming names. Some readers urge you to continue to write, despite the risks and recriminations. Much less charitably, some readers call you ugly names. Some wish you and your family misfortune and harm. Some readers try, and fail, to get you fired. All you can do as a writer is to keep writing, regardless of the reaction – whether kind or unkind, thoughtful or thoughtless – or the consequences, intended or not. Still, one of the casualties of writing about Palestinians can be the loss of the reassuring constancy and tender pleasure of valued friendships. I suppose I am not alone on this sad score. Students, teachers, academics, artists, and so many others have been exiled, charged, or even jailed for refusing to ignore or sanitise the horror we see day after dreadful day. In this context, my travails, while stinging and disconcerting, are modest in comparison. Departed friends, however dear, are, it seems, the price for candour that unsettles. Those friendships, built over decades through sometimes happy, sometimes sad experiences and shared confidences, have evaporated in an instant. I understood that this rupture could happen. I did not fear it. I accepted it. Yet, when it did happen, it pricked. It was abrupt. Phone calls went to voice mail. Emails went unanswered. Inevitably, the absence and quiet grew until they became an unmistakable verdict. So, I did not ask for explanations. That would, I reasoned, be futile. A door had been slammed shut and bolted. Friends I admired and respected. Friends I laughed with, trusted, whose counsel I sought and who sought mine. Gone. I wish them and their loved ones well. I will miss their wise ear and, from time to time, their helping hand. Some of them are Jewish, some are not. I do not begrudge their choice. They have exercised their prerogative to decide who can and cannot be called a friend. I once met their litmus test – the one we all have. Now, I have failed it. I know that some of my former friends have deep ties to Israel. Some have family who live there. Some may be grieving, too, worried over what comes next. I do not ignore their fear or uncertainty. I do not deny their right to safety. This is where, I suspect, we confront the unspoken cause of the irreversible divide. Israel's security cannot be achieved at the expense of Palestine's freedom and sovereignty. That is not peace, let alone the elusive 'co-existence'. It is domination – brutal and unforgiving. This kind of loss, profound and lasting, gives way to clarity born from rejection. It sharpens your appreciation of loyalty and authenticity in relationships. Perhaps the people I thought I knew, I did not know at all. And perhaps the people who thought they knew me, did not know me at all. There is a reckoning under way. Like most reckonings, big or small, near or distant, it can be messy and painful. We are trying to navigate a pitiless world that, on the disagreeable whole, punishes dissent and rewards compliance. To those friends who have opted for distance, I say this: I am convinced that you believe what you're doing is right and just. So am I. I write not to wound. I write to insist. I insist that Palestinian lives matter. I insist that Palestinians cannot be erased by edict, force, and intimidation. I insist that mourning should not be a daily ritual for any people. I insist that justice cannot be selective and humanity must be universal. I insist that Palestinian children rediscover the fullness of life beyond occupation, terror, and grief. I insist that Palestinian children, like our children, have the chance, again, to play, to learn, and to thrive. I insist that the killing lust that has gripped a nation like a fever that will not break, has to be broken. Too much damage has been done. Can we agree on that? When I have stopped writing, the account will show that in this obscene moment of slaughter and starvation, I was not among the silent. It will find me – for better or worse – on the record. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.

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