Little Man in a Toque » Blog Archive » Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?

Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?

I wonder if Messrs Darling and Brown ever heard of Lord Bute’s sad fall from favour?

IN 1763, a major political crisis led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, John Stuart, the third Earl of Bute. The focal point of the attack on Bute was that he was Scottish. Lord Bute had brought an end to the Seven Years’ War in which Britain had defeated France for world supremacy. But the financial cost had been ruinous and the National Debt was spiraling out of control. As a result, Bute concluded a quick settlement that handed back to France many of Britain’s territorial gains. Worse, he imposed a massive tax of 4 shillings per hogshead on the Englishman’s favourite tipple – cider.

English patriots were not amused. Bute was assailed in the tabloid press for being out of touch with English sentiment and English wallets. He was hung in effigy across England and a London mob smashed the windows of his house. Bute was finally hounded out of office on 8 April, 1763. It would be more than a century before another native Scot would be a British Prime Minister – Lord Roseberry in 1894. – The Scotsman, 14th May 2005

If they had they might not have raised taxes on beer by 4 pence a pint with annual increases of 2% above inflation year on year for the next four years. And they might not now be facing poll ratings of 29% (ICM) and 27% (YouGov).

With 27 pubs a week closing many an English village is losing the heartbeat of its community – New Labour already having shut down its school and driven the Post Office and Village Store out of business. It really is an absolute tragedy if we allow these dastardly despots to do this to what is for me the defining English institution: The Pub.

True to totalitarian form the English pub is being run down to save us from ourselves. The smoking ban was a hefty blow to the traditional pub, but rather than give the landlord time to recover and develop new sources of revenue, they’ve immediately increased taxes, punishing binge-drinker and responsible drinker alike. But most of all they punish small breweries and independent pubs and their staff. And to make things worse the rising price of hops and barley has led to contemplation of the £4 pint.

The evidence points to the fact that binge-drinking is fueled by people loading on cheap super-market booze at home, or downing Bacardi Breezers, shots and Export-strength lagers in the 24hr vertical-drinking hell-holes encouraged by New Labour’s licencing laws. But they’ve taken a broad-broom to the problem and penalised the millions who like a few pints down their local. And for that I hope they suffer like Bute.

For me an attack on the English pub is nothing less than an attack on England itself, and I think the regulars down my local feel the same too. We may stop short of burning effigies of Darling and Brown in the street but….Well, actually this is Lewes, so maybe we will burn their effigies.

Paul Kingsnoth, who has blogged previously on this (see The death of the English pub and Preserve beerdiversity), has an article in the Daily Mail entitled The murder of the English pub. Well worth a read.

“The Chancellor has failed to recognise that well-run community pubs are the solution to Britain’s binge drinking problems. This budget will do nothing to stop binge drinking, but it will lead to pub closures on a huge scale, widen the gap between supermarket and pub prices and encourage smuggling and cross-border shopping. It’s a great big nail whacked ruthlessly into the coffin of the British pub.” – Mike Benner, Chief Executive of CAMRA.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm and is filed under england. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?”

Charlie Marks Says:
March 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
My local got bought out and went from being a quiet family pub where people went with their kids – it was like a public house, literally – to a loud and loutish locus of exessive drinking… I’m sure it’s a much more profitable enterprise these days, but to our loss as a community.
Mike Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 9:04 am
The Mail article’s good but he’s a bit wonky on his history. Taverns (a Roman invention) predated the pub which evolved separately out of people brewing beer.

It’s interesting to see cider described as the “Englishman’s favourite tipple” in your quote. Much like beer, the chemical slop that most pubs pump out (including Magners) bears little relation to the real thing. A trip to Middle Farm (home to the English Cider Collection – one of Sussex’s many well kept secrets) just up the road from Lewes, will give you an idea just how good and varied the real thing is:

http://www.middlefarm.com/07_cider_perry.htm

You can try them all and they’re dirt cheap to buy (IIRC Gwatkins Norman (around 7%) worked out around £1.50ish a pint).
Toque Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I know, I was at Applefest ‘07. I think. If you remember it you weren’t there!

Good farm shop too, but a little pricey.
Little Man in a Toque » Darling - You’re Barred! Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 10:26 am
[...] Comments Toque on Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?Mike on Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?anglonoel on Ministry of Justice commission [...]
Hagar Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I can’t let you South Saxons claim the glory. For a drop of Somerset’s finest you can’t beat Rich’s Farmhouse cider from the village of Mark, near Wedmore in Somerset. Just a couple of miles off Junction 22 on the M5.
BTW. I always berate people I see drinking that Magners bilge…”You live in Somerset for ***** sake!”
Mike Says:
March 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
They hold an Apple Howling/Wassail event there in January too which I’ve never quite managed to get along to but which looks to be jolly good fun.
M Anderson Says:
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
They’ll never beat us. The Normans couldnt do it! We are still here speaking English in England; what about them?
The Romans couldnt do it, i.e. the battle of the Teutoburg Forest 9 A.D. N.B. oh well were always being called Herronvolk so what the heck!
Anyway, if you think about it saving our health (no smoking no drinking) is the last thing they should have done! So well done to eu new labour theyve helped me wean myself off their biggest friend! Oh the irony! I bet they dont even see it either. Plus, we can always re start our boozers. Let them try to destroy us well be bigger and stronger for it.

Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?

7 Responses to “Lord Bute: A salutory lesson of history?”

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