More tax on wine

Surprise, surprise: yet another above-inflation tax rise for wine. We won't go on, just to inform you that the Treasury has whacked another 4 pence on a bottle of wine, and 5 pence on the fizzy stuff. As Jeremy Beadles (no relation, we're assured), chief executive of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association said: "At a time when the Government is offering other industries a helping hand it is extraordinary that it wishes to hurt the drinks industry with further tax increases". Quite so Jeremy, quite so. To which we might add: what with having run the pound into the ground against the Euro (hiking up the price of European wine by a good 25%), increasing the government's own 'wining-and-dining' budget from £550 to £800k per annum, they really are taking the p... But we did promise not to go on.