This is the wording on the poster landlord Richard Wroe has put up in his pub, The Half Moon in Felixstowe, ahead of Wednesday's Budget.THE Labour Government (oxymoron) is presumably going to put up tax on alcohol in the forthcoming budget.

This is the wording on the poster landlord Richard Wroe has put up in his pub, The Half Moon in Felixstowe, ahead of Wednesday's Budget.

THE Labour Government (oxymoron) is presumably going to put up tax on alcohol in the forthcoming budget.

The brewery price rises have in most cases already taken effect and I am already paying these increases. I will absorb these until the budget so that my customers, who are after all my livelihood, will not suffer two prices in a short space of time.

Alistair Darling (oxymoron) is wrong to punish pubs with a tax increase, saying amongst other things that it will help stop binge drinking. No one binge drinks in a pub, they cannot afford to, they binge drink alcohol that is bought from supermarkets that sell the stuff cheaper than I can purchase it from the brewery. A bottle of vodka purchased from a Hamilton Road supermarket can be drunk for the equivalent of 38p for a large measure. Small wonder pubs like the Half Moon, decent community pubs, are closing with alarming regularity.

Your continued support is, I assure you, much appreciated.