You should have heard the explosion from Magician on Monday morning! He was still suffering the after effects of his handfasting weekend and a Mudcat gathering when he got a letter from the Brewery informing him of the price increases.

Initial calculations showed that he should charge an extra 10p on a pint of bitter and 19p on Fosters lager!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The idea did NOT go down well. He tries to keep his costs as low as possible and, as anyone drinking the beer this weekend will agree, the beer the best it possibly can be.

Later in the day his business manager assured him it would ONLY be a hike of 6p a pint on the beer ie 31/2% of the price and higher than most peoples wage increases for the year - still totally outrageous with the budget still looming.