I am not convinced about the Taxation argument. In fact this was exploaded by the Legal Action the Sheppherd Neame Brewery of Faversham took some short years ago.

In the UK the Tax basis is two stage.

First there is the Excise Tax, calculated on the specific gravity of the Wort befor fermentation. This for an "average" strength pint of say 3.5 ish ABV is somewhere in the region of 30 - 32 pence per pint.

Value Added Tax of 17.5% forms part of the final price. Allowance is given for wastege and ullage by the Customs and Excise.

Working backward from the price of a pint at say £2.00 hence if my calculations are correct.

£2.00 includes about {(200/117.5)*17.5) say 30 pence

Thus the total tax take is say 30 + 32 = 62 p

Very roughly the cost for a publican to buy in the beer (And I ignore bulk discounts and barallage commision) would be about a pound a pint.

Of this £1.00 - 32p is Excise duty and roughly 15p VAT.

That 15p VAT is a deductable input against the total VAT due from the publican.

So the price in the bar equates to :-

£0.53 to the Brewers
£0.62 to the Government
£0.85 to the Publican.

I suspect that bigger villain is the rent charged by the Landlords to the Publican.

Still we are told the cost of beer is all the fault of the Government, and who tells us this - The big brewers.

I am open to correction if any UK 'Catter has more up to date figures, or better mathematics.

Gareth