Public enemy
ONCE, Labour understood the importance of pubs to working-class and rural communities.
Now it seems to take pleasure in watching them call a final Last Orders.
Since coming to office, ministers have gone out of their way to pummel local boozers.
Huge hikes in the minimum wage . . . National Insurance rises . . . increases to alcohol duty . . .
Most egregiously, the Budget included a business rates leap that is expected to drive thousands more pubs to the wall.
Some landlords are so enraged that they’re even planning an unprecedented day of industrial action.
So how do ministers choose to respond?
By randomly throwing out a plan to tighten drink-drive laws which have been in place for SIXTY years.
Set aside the huge doubts of whether the change will do anything to tackle irresponsible drivers who ignore ANY limit set by Government.
Certainly, cutting the limit to 50mg in Scotland has made no real difference.
But did it not cross ministers’ minds what the knock-on effect might be on rural pubs in particular?
If responsible drinkers are deterred from having even a single pint, pubs’ income will take a catastrophic hit.
And towns and villages will be robbed of a vital resource which is good for mental health and community spirit.
Fuel fools
KEIR Starmer says his top priority this year is to reduce the crippling cost of living.
How does he square that with Labour’s plans to jack up fuel duty?
The 5p cut — fought for by The Sun — will be reversed by the Chancellor in three stages, starting with a 1p per litre increase in September followed by 2p rises in December and in March 2027.
Nigel Farage gets how punishing this will be for families and will pledge to reinstate it. Labour surely has to see sense and match the Reform leader.
Or perhaps they really do have a political death wish?
Woke danger
ANYONE who believes the relentless drive in our public services to hit diversity targets is harmless should read how police chiefs ended up hiring sex predators and thugs.
A report reveals Met top brass — determined to hit quotas for ethnic minority officers — waved through offenders who had ALREADY failed vetting procedures.
Child rapist Cliff Mitchell was among those cops not properly checked.
That’s not just a dereliction of duty, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says.
It’s yet another example of how a mindless devotion to wokery has put the public in needless danger.
